[kcy88]

wow, it's been a long time i've thought about animation...
as i recall, it's best to use low values for the MR renderer for test rendering and such, but higher values (if you can wait) when it comes to the final render. Sometimes there's no noticeable difference between high values and low values. I usuallly start with values below 100. If you are simply test rendering to see how your lights will appear in the scene, it's best to go low because you just want to see where your light cast shadow and the coverage. what are your final gather values?
also consider, does your whole animation need to be rendered with final gather? can you compensate by not rendering with final gather in some scenes and still achieve relatively the same results? just some thoughts...