I also am interested in what this script does....I see it in the startup folder ...I imagine that it creates a background render button somewhere in the interface because some of the functions refere to putting a comp in the render que. I just can't find it....

to answer your question though you do not need to know java to use the background renderer. You just type it into the command line. If you aren't familiar with that in windows then it goes something like this

hit the start menu button in the system tray at the bottom of the screen

in the "search programs and files (formerly came up as run) at the bottom type in cmd and hit enter

the command prompt will come up

this is the command line. this is where you set off a background render.

like this

aerender -project C:\!WORK\218-SK2\218-012-018\AE\218-012-018-00_d00.042-cu00.000-c00.0 03.aep -v ERRORS_AND_PROGRESS

If I want to render my file I set up the render que and save. then enter this into the command prompt.

unfortunately the above wont work right off..you have to be in the directory that aerender.exe exists in. This is refered to as the environment variable.

to do this in the command prompt type this

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files

You may have to alter this if your main local drive is not c: or if you are on a 32 bit machine in which case you can omit the (x86) form the line. like this

cd C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files

also pay attention to what version of AE you are using

so in summary to set off the file you have saved with the render que set up you would type this into the command prompt

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files

aerender -project C:\!WORK\218-SK2\218-012-018\AE\218-012-018-00_d00.042-cu00.000-c00.0 03.aep -v ERRORS_AND_PROGRESS

then hit enter

there is plenty of documentation on this around the interenet if you want to get more elaborate with this.

cheers,