James: managed to get the render times from 5:21 to 3:57 on my machine with minimal quality loss so hopefuly that will knock of about 10 mins per frame on the renderfarm.

Karen: Ooooo awesome, it doesn't sound like a lot but it seems like it will make a massive difference!!!

James: yer it should 10 mins of 100 frames would be 1000 mins witch is like 16 hours lol but seen as it renders 60 odd at a time it wnt save 16 hours per 100 frames more like 16 hours per 6000 frames but every litle helps.

Karen: Yep every little helps indeed so that is all good.