Network Rendering

Network Rendering
The aerender command is also key to third-party rendering
solutions such as Rush Render Queue (http://seriss.
com/rush/). These programs run scripts that manage
the process of running aerender on multiple machines.
The better applications among them, Rush
included, are capable of far more than just straight-ahead
renders; you can, for example, have one render wait until
a certain time or for another one to complete before commencing,
and you can automatically requeue renders that
fail for any reason.
This type of software is not generally even implemented via
a standard installer; required instead are the implementation
skills of a system administrator or equivalent technical
expert. Most larger facilities have just such a “geek” on
staff, and many advanced After Effects users are themselves
capable of setting this up in smaller studios.
Multiple After Effects Versions
Alternatively, you can open multiple versions of After
Effects including the UI. Although memory intensive, this
allows you to actually investigate, compare, and edit two
projects at once, which is occasionally handy.
On a Mac, all you need to do is locate Adobe After Effects
CS4.app in the Finder (most likely in Applications/Adobe