Here’s another tip for improving render speed. Don’t laugh, this actually does work.
Disable the computer’s “sleep if no user activity” timeout.
I had mine set for three hours, nice and green you know? (On Mac OS X, the control panel for this feature has a light bulb for its icon.) But it turned my 6 hour render into… well… I came home from work and it was still unfinished from the night before. Because the computer was sleeping.
Works for all render applications.
Thwok.
Now, as to why After Effects doesn’t tickle the Mac’s timout API to say “i am here, i am here” is a very very good question.