How to render animations in Maya

                             First got to render settings and select the render type. We are going to render the animation in a sequence, not in a single file. So choose the file format, In here I choose Maya IFF. But if you are rendering a high quality animations in mental ray you may use OpenEXR. Choose extension for the animation and set animation range. Select your renderable camera.

                           Then switch to rendering menu by pressing F6. Go to Render->Batch Render option box. Set Render Threads and click Batch render. By default your rendering location will be in your Maya project directory inside the images folder.

                           After rendering you have to import the sequence to composting software. You can use Autodesk Composite which comes with Maya, then Adobe After Effects. In composite you can modify the final render(adding depth, adjusting color corrections etc). Save your animation. Then import this sequence to after effects and add some special effects. When importing choose the first file of the sequence. Now you can save your animation in a single avi or mov file.