Maybe it’s just me, but I find it strange that Blender doesn’t show an ETA for animation renders by default. When a render starts, the most important question is basically: Do I have time for coffee, lunch, or maybe even some small talk with the girl I like? (she doesn’t know that)
So I made a small Blender add-on called Hyper Bar.
The main thing it adds is a useful ETA bar for animation rendering: time left, estimated finish time, elapsed time, rendered/total frames, and average frame time. It works with both image sequences and video file output. The bar is shown in the 3D View sidebar, and can optionally appear in the render window header.
The ETA is calculated from a configurable rolling window of recent finished frames, not from the whole render. A larger window gives a smoother estimate for stable scenes, while a smaller one reacts faster when the animation gets heavier or lighter. There is also a small render history list with recent sessions.
Now I know how much time I have for my personal life before Blender needs me again!
You can get Hyper Bar here: https://superhivemarket.com/products/hyper-bar
It’s $5, so if the small talk goes well, at least I know where the coffee budget came from. Have a good day!
