Just as a suggestion (especially if you are rendering yourselves); don't commit to a video compression codec just yet. Keep the animations in uncompressed format, to allow post production and editing and compress them once the final edit is completed and the scenes are ready for splicing.

OK these means a lot of off-line storage, but they do actually zip up quite tightly.

Currently DivX looks like a much better quality/compression codec than MS Video1, and in a year or so most of the community may be running on powerful enough platforms to handle the decoding.

Sorry I can't afford the time myself, you will need to split the workload some more, 4 - 8 hours a day is prohibitive, especially for when folk won't get full artistic control of their own output or financial renumeration. Even if people commit to that how are you going to ensure that level of commitment over the entire length of the project? Anyone who does volunteer for that extended commitment is probably deluded.

Parcelling out the work a scene at a time to a larger number of artists, along with a tight script and access to sample animations may be a better bet. Also allow yourself some leeway for non-delivery and unsatisfactory work.

Why not, in the first instance, aim for a short (3 - 5 minute) trial feature, just to see how things pan out?

Whatever becomes of this, best of luck.