Rendering @Home for animated films

Japanese animation studios Shirogumi and Buildin have announced that their next feature will be partially rendered using spare cycles on volunteers' PCs, using NTT Communications' Cell Computing Birth system. Participants download a piece of client software and register; the software is intended to make them feel "part of the process" as they see the frames that are being worked on cycle across their screen. It's also possible to sign up for the two genome projects already being run on the system. Looks like NTT com has gone and built itself what's effectively an "anything@Home" system, though the range of projects it can be used for is presumably going to stay limited while cycles are donated with no remuneration (or are we being too cynical?).

[Via ITmedia (Japanese)]