Thanks for relating the tip jonstark! I really should put together a full tip list and post it here since there are so many - and some very unique to specific image/animation needs or pipelines.

Just to put a point on the pencil...

Irradiance cacheing is primarily used for camera animations through a light and object static scenes. Moving objects or light sources will void the accuracy of the cache. However, in some animation instances, the degradation isn't noticeable -  long camera shots for example. 

CG is slowly making its way to the masses and Carrara, Poser, Vue, Blender et al are poised to capitalize on that. Carrara is not swimming upstream into Hollywood. Given the fact that Carrara is probably given away more than it's purchased, it's astonishing to consider how much it does so well. DAZ is a Content company first, and a Software company second. I think I've detected some of the afore mentioned companies adopting the same strategy too.  ;-)

Carrara has it's annoyances but it's nothing like my favorite software to both equally loathe and love: Vue. :-D  

In fact, I just finished a series on Vue xStream. During the section on animation, the silly program crashed 3 times; one time forcing a complete scene rebuild. Carrara doesn't do that. 

Mark