| I dont know if that is the kind of answer you want but you can see the rendering progress by the Script Editor Window (as most things you do in maya). And the progress is kept under the display script editor - a small rectangle under the timeline next to the mel commands.
There is also a "Show Batch render" in the rendering menu (F5 -> Render -> Show Batch Render)
If you just want to check how the animation is going you can playblast it. Right click on the timeline and choose the last one "playblast"
About the render output, well, in the render settings window you have a bunch of options (image format) that goes about 26 options, including .mov if you want to render a movie file directly - not recommended as you probably know.
Hope it was helpful, if not, keep on asking.
Which version of maya are you using? |