To create an aniblock you don't need any lights or shadows !!!
Just V4 for example with different poses to "puppeteer" !

When you want to save your real animation using an aniblock on any character in a scene here you need lights (and shadows)...
It's true ! Depending on your aim : Render can be very long or not !

Create an aniblock and render a scene (picture or animation) are two different things.
Always make export tests with a small resolution 320 x 240 for example and just a few frames of the whole animation by taping 0 to 5 frames for example for the render !
You don't have to export the whole animation at the beginning...
If the first tests are Ok for you then you can export all ! And you can do something else during the calculation...  :o)

A serie of images or an .avi file is the same (I think ?) relative to the duration... because Daz calculates and renders each frame in both cases.

6R