lighting continued and Path constraints

Lighting my animation has been slightly tricky, with the outcome changing a number of times, the Omni lighting used was added to the scene, and everything except certain groups were excluded, the issue was if I then un-grouped or created something new, this would not be included in the exclusion. 

It is clear lighting and camera's should be set up after EVERYTHING in the scene has been created and modified, this will save time and ensure nothing is lit up by lights that should not be. 
It had a large effect on my first animation with materials that changed color in the animation being very shaded due to the lighting around it. 
I overcame that particular problem by creating another light at the end in front of the materials changing color so it could easily be seen by the camera.

I changed the lighting used from an omni light to directional spotlights and excluded most of the shapes other then the parts I wanted lighted up. My decision on this was based on the omni lighting coming through the model from certain views, where as the target spotlight lighting does not do this. Giving a better look within the animation. 

I started using path constraints with a camera, as described in an exercise, and then used the same principal to move the models within my animation, this allowed me to use the same path for each model and the camera, to create a moving shot of all the ships and the camera. This was exactly what I needed to show the speed of the ships which made it look a lot more real. 

I didn't have any issues with the path constraints, except applying a path constraint to an object and then attaching a path, this made the object unable to move.