Cerebro New Features ^{, 201116:48 September 22, 2011}

Access Rights Management Upgraded

Access rights can be global (granted to the whole Universe) or local, task-specific.

To adjust task-specific access rights pick the task (or project), go to   Task Properties tab and press the button .

A new window will open:

The upper list displays current groups and users who have access to the task. There you can change Role and Access Rights Inheritance Pattern. A Role is a combination of separate access rights which allows a user certain type of activities in the project structure. Access Rights Inheritance Pattern defines the scope of Role application. The patterns can be the following:

1. To the current task and all lower levels (sublevels)

2. To the current level only

3. To the sublevels only

The access rights highlighted with bold type are not inherited from upper levels (parent objects) and therefore can be changed. Inherited access rights cannot be altered. If you need to alter inherited access rights you must uncheck Inherit Access Rights from Parent Objects checkbox first. All current inherited rights will be changed to direct and ten set to zero. After that you can edit/delete these access rights in the particular task.

You can customize access rights for a picked group/user in the upper list by checking / unchecking the appropriate checkboxes in the lower list.

To add a group / user to the upper list press Add a Group/User button.

A dialog window will appear where you’ll be able to select Groups/Users to add to the list.

Pressing Role button calls a window with list of roles and their specific access rights settings.

Here you can see and edit current role settings and create new roles.

Global access rights are set up in Administrator window (Main menu/Tools/Administrator) on Universe tab

Global access rights are being set up the same way as described above except one restriction: they can be set up for groups only (not for separate users).

Access rights management is one of the most sophisticated matters in Cerebro therefore we strongly recommend you to read the latest User Manual on this matter before making any changes. ССЫЛКА

The latest access rights management system is not guaranteed to be compatible with the previous one. An issue noticed: if you edit access rights in the latest version of Cerebro, they can be displayed incorrectly in previous versions.

Bugs Fixed

Large files export to Cargador error (all platforms) – fixed

More information here.

RA “Mandarin” – Case Study ^{, 201118:57 September 20, 2011}

This month, Konstantin Kharitonov talks to Dmitrii Filippov of Mandarin Ad Agency.

Konstantin Kharitonov: Hi!

Dmitrii Filippov: Hi to you too! (smiles). Is everything ok? Any trouble with the armed men?

K.Kh.: No, not this time, everything is fine! But let’s be honest, things are pretty strict around here… Maybe a little too strict…

D.F.: Well, we aren’t selling pastry around here. TV is serious business.

K.Kh.: Maybe we should start on that subject? Tell me a little about your company. What do you specialise in? Who are your clients? Or is that a state secret? (Smiles)

D.F.: First and foremost, we are an advertising agency, although lately we have been branching out. Lately, I myself have taken on a large number of various projects that have nothing to do with advertising. There are jobs that have to do with the production of video clips and all kinds of 3D stuff for advertising. These days I mostly work with the movie industry, animation, 3D, and everything to do with mass-media entertainment. Our clients are primarily the kind of people who are interested in projects that are ‘out of this world’, original and unusual. These people want to change TV-viewers for the best, to make them go ‘Wow!’ at the key moments, when in fact they are sitting on a couch eating popcorn. We are interested in the viewer, the clients are interested in the viewer, and it is in the viewer’s interest to say ‘Wow!’ more often. That’s how we live: it’s all in the name of the viewer.

K.Kh.: How very humanitarian of you! What kind of projects are you working on right now?

D.F.: At the moment, all our ‘Chinese armies’ are toiling away on animation for the ‘Big Race’ project on Channel One. The channel has recently bought new equipment that allows them to air unusual ads and previews at the bottom of the frame. Basically, if we say that a single shot is the frame, we can stick an image at the bottom of the frame – this can be something in 3D, it can be a video-clip – some kind of interactive on-screen graphic that tells you that in, say, 5 minutes you can enjoy the latest movie ‘Boom!’. And other stuff like that. It sounds like a pretty straightforward way to do this, but I haven’t seen anything like that yet. Or, rather, I’ve seen some, but they are not quite right… we need something new! So we’re want to suggest something crazy, unusual, flashy! I won’t talk about future projects, though, I don’t want to jinx it.

K.Kh.: And that’s alright, no need to do that yet. We’ll see for ourselves when the time comes. Meanwhile, tell us how things got started, when did major projects start to roll in and you decided you needed specialised software to manage them?

D.F.: Truth be told, it all began a long time ago, way before I got involved with production. I had only just joined the TV-center. Back then, we wanted to fully automate the production of TV-programmes. Cerebro didn’t exist yet, but there were a few major project management apps. To work with them, you had to have a room-full of weird servers running Oracle. It cost an arm and a leg and you really needed an advanced degree in rocket science to use them. Before pressing the ‘Power’ button, you had to read through a million-page-long manual under close supervision from specially trained engineers… After a year or two, we began to produce 3D and video. We became a full-service agency and I saw this great word on the Internet – ‘Cerebro’. I logged on to the web-site, watched a video, it was very clear and easy to understand. I was really glad to find it, because at that moment I really needed something like that – I had staff working all over the country and the world, and it was a lot more convenient to have everything in one app, without FTP and other concoctions from the previous century. We were working on some TV advert then, so we gathered everyone and started to communicate through Cerebro.

K.Kh.: What criteria did Cerebro fit for you?

 D.F.: Well, I may be wrong, but right now I don’t know about any other software that can work with every kind of media. I mean, yes, there are some bugs in iOS, which I’ve mentioned before (on the Cerebro Facebook Page – ed.), but to be honest that’s not a problem. I always have my wonderful Mac with me, and I can always open any video people send to me. Basically, if you have Cerebro, you have a live link-up with everyone who works with you. But we understand that you can’t set a link-up unless there is a TV on each end. In this case the ‘TV’ is your laptop, and everything depends on how much effort you have put into it. The more advanced it is, the better Cerebro works. If your laptop supports all sizes of video, all possible formats, and so on, if you have thousands of codecs installed, than there will never be a problem, and everything is really simple. Although I still don’t get why .RAR files are opened with the VLC player, but that’s not the point…

K.Kh.: We are currently working on a new codec, AVC, which is used by VLC. That way, we will finally be able to provide full support for every kind of AVI and all Windows Media files. But still, why did you choose Cerebro in the end?

D.F.: The main reason I chose Cerebro is that I have a Mac myself and it’s very difficult to find software that works well on a Mac. But here I found a fully competitive product that I am very happy with. And the best thing is that it works on Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

K.Kh.: How did your employees, freelancers, and clients react to Cerebro? How long did it take them to get used to it? What problems were there?

D.F.: It’s a well known fact that we live in a country of contrasts, and no innovation can be introduced without problems. There will always be some generation that will say: ‘We don’t need this, we’d rather keep working the old way, on paper, with pencils’… You just need to come up with an explanation that makes people feel personally invested in the change. You can’t just tell someone that in the name of corporate morale and team spirit they need to get to grips with the basics of this software called Cerebro. No. You need to make them understand that this really is simple and useful, that it will significantly speed up not only the production process, which is something that no-one but the manager needs, but also the employee’s personal work process and their connection to the outside world. You don’t need to use e-mails, upload files to FTP, come up with dozens of passwords, and so on. Of course, at the moment the Internet connection can be a little slow, but I think this is just a matter of time: the Internet is growing like crazy, and soon enough gigabytes will download to your laptop in the blink of an eye. And Cerebro is an important part of this process.

K.Kh.: Do you use the drawing function, text and audio commenting?

D.F.: To be honest, I began my career as a copywriter, creating advertising concepts, working out original synergies in ads, all kinds of things to do with words. It’s easier for me to explain something in writing than by talking to people. In any case, when you use audio commenting, people don’t see you. You can’t point your finger to this or that details. But I do use the drawing function sometimes. When we worked on the ‘Big Race’, we had very tight deadlines and really didn’t have enough time to get to know all the functions, but I’ve gotten the hang of it, more or less, – the Gant diagrams and all the other stuff, even though I didn’t really have time for all this administrative work. Ideally, I think, there should be a special person who would oversee this and who would know the app from top to bottom. Then I could just come to them and say, ‘Peter, we launched a project today, we have so-and-so many employees, so-and-so many subtasks, the budget for each employee is this, etc.’ And he would then get everything in order and let me know the figures.

K.Kh.: Well, we’ve found that people like that are usually ‘Mary’ rather than ‘Peter’. People that create and assign tasks, who are called project coordinators, they are usually female. I don’t know why, but this is the case in any large company.

D.F.: I’ll keep that in mind.

K.Kh.: Tell us, have any of your clients switched to Cerebro?

D.F.: Yes, why wouldn’t they? For example, we had this situation with the Russia State Lottery. The staff there are all very active, the sales manager and the brand manager, they all got the hang of Cerebro in a hurry, as they say. We uploaded the project and began talking through Cerebro straight away, they commented on our work. This really speeds up the process, because you see comments and responses live and not when it’s too late, there’s no turning back, and the project is an ‘epic fail’. If you don’t have Cerebro, you try to avoid sending materials as much as possible, so, basically, you get some frame of reference, then you send the mid-way result, and then the composited result, and that’s it. The client doesn’t see anything else. Here, you have subcategories: you have modellers, you have artists, compositors, animators… One way or another, they all depend on each other, and they send each other materials, and the client can see all of this and comment on the production process. There is, however, one giant drawback – as a rule, the client has no understanding whatsoever of the creative process. So, if they see a piece of animation that hasn’t been composited yet, they can have a fit, thinking we’re ‘useless’.

K.Kh.: Well… Generally, it would be better to only give clients limited access, not the same as for employees. Then the client will only see those messages that have been set as ‘Client Visible’. Of course, this can only be set by the project manager, not just any employee, and the manager can decide, what they want to show to the client. Speaking of this, what do you think we need to work on? What do we need to improve?

D.F.: I am a huge fan of Apple, and I’m used to seeing my desktop and my computer as a whole as something interactive. If I move my mouse to the left edge, there’s a light on the left, if I move it to the right – there’s a light on the right, everything is so interactive and user friendly. The whole thing is there to make people love it and enjoy it. Your entire work is like a game, like a quest. Really, though, I’m completely satisfied with Cerebro as it is. I think that Cerebro is really cool. I don’t really see the need to add feature after feature. So, ok, I may need a MOV file without compression using the Pro-res422 codec, but it’s just as likely no-one else needs it. So why add it to Cerebro?

K.Kh.: I see. By the way, we will release a SDK soon and people will be able to add whatever they need. So, for example, if you attach a Pro-res to a message, Cerebro will automatically create a MOV and put it there, so that people who don’t have Pro-res can see it.

D.F.: Well, I don’t really see the point of tinkering like that, because I have a Mac. Macs are very intuitive, they don’t really force you into anything. To open a Word document, you don’t need to do a million pointless things, you always have this large W button at the bottom of the screen. You just click it, and that’s it. I think it should be the same way here – if someone needs something, they can install it separately. We are not playing Tetris here, we are making important decisions and solving difficult problems – you can just help us and not overload us with a hundred more features that only give me a headache. You know, one guy I really respect once told me: ‘Dima, your generation is a generation of trade experts: no-one knows the innovations of the digital market like you do! And you can’t really think of anything new. But you can come up with original things! Then, maybe, you don’t need to be so obsessed with innovation? Maybe you just need to do things that attract attention?’

K.Kh.: That’s pretty good! There’s also this saying: ‘The key to success is simplicity’. Let’s always remember these wise words!

Road Show – Kiev, 14-16 September. Part Two. ^{, 201117:08 September 2, 2011}

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian

New CEREBRO: Some options and bugs fix ^{, 201123:08 July 23, 2011}

You may select the UI language Cerebro directly at login screen.

You may choose avatar display option to show them (the menu Cerebro Astro – Settings – Display Settings):

• - on the left, center or right of the message header
• - or disable altogether.

There is a new export Review option appear in MiradaPro (menu Review / Export Track to MOV). You may save Review track with voice comments in separate QuicktTme MOV file. The feature available on Windows and MacOS platforms. (Windows: Unknown problem was detected when export file targeted to Desktop)

Corrections to the server component:

module Sirena was updated. File deletion error was fixed.

Bug Fix in Cerebro:

The First Steps Wizard assigns default file storage for a new project immediately. This will eliminate “Site list is empty” error message.

Bug Fix in Mirada:

Saving of long (more than 3 minutes) reviews was fixed. They are correctly stored and shipped in Cerebro now.

More information here.

“Smeshariki” get a 3D-volume with NVIDIA ^{, 201123:10 July 18, 2011}

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Mirada Pro: Stereoscopic 3D Support + 3 New Features ^{, 201103:12 June 17, 2011}

CineSoft Ltd. launches a new version of the most popular Cerebro plugin – Mirada player.

A new version of Mirada, named Mirada Pro offers four advanced features:

• Stereoscopic 3D support,
• Online reviewing sessions,
• Color grading,
• Reviews saved as standalone files in a user defined folder.

1. Stereoscopic 3D Support

Cerebro professional users get a unique tool for watching images and videos in stereoscopic 3D format and what is more noticeable – this tool allows to draw stereoscopic comments as well, i.e., they are parallax adjustable!

Mirada Pro supports 5 stereoscopic modes:

-  OpenGL Quad Buffering Mode based on NVIDIA 3DVision Pro hardware technology.

This mode requires an  NVIDIA Quadro series graphic controller as well as shutter eyeglasses and an emitter (NVIDIA 3DVision Kit).

- Anaglyph Mode. You’ll need special eyeglasses with red and cyan color filters.

Alongside with the described above modes Mirada Pro offers a special mode for preview theaters (review rooms) - Dual Screen Output. This mode allows to project two separate videostreams via paired projectors and filter the streams by polarized eyeglasses. A dual video output graphic controller is required to run this mode.

If a user’s graphic controller doesn’t support any of the above modes Mirada Pro offers two monoscopic modes – Source and One Side Only. The first one displays the picture “as is”, the second one displays a half of it, either “left eye” or “right eye” depending on user’s choice.

2. Online Reviewing Sessions

Mirada Pro offers a special tool named Online Reviewing Session. This tool allows several remoted users to establish an Internet connection, share the session link and watch simultaneously not only the content played back by Mirada Pro but each other’s actions as well (mouse cursor movements, timeline shifts, picture zoom and pan).

This mode is based on more progressive technologies than trendy screen sharing, and they makes it possible to share and review high quality images or videofiles on pretty slow Internet connections.

3. Color grading

Tools -> Color Grading menu adjusts Gamma and Exposure and switches on/off Linear to Logarithmic mode:

OpenGL library makes it possible for Mirada Pro to use Color Grading even with RAW formats (or other formats with more than 8 bits per color channel).

4. Reviews Saved as Standalone Files

This option lets a user save a review as a separate file to a defined folder if for some reason he (she) doesn’t want to publish it immediately in a Cerebro forum thread.

More information

• Mirada Versions Comparison Mirada и Mirada Pro
• Full documentation about Mirada Pro

How Do I Get Mirada Pro?

Starting with build 5794 by June 17, 2011 Mirada Pro is included in standard Cerebro installation packages for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Pro functions unlock after a special product key activation. Mirada Pro is available for all Cerebro pricing plans, including Free Demo.

A product key can be purchased by either of two possible ways:

1) Via Cerebro Web Interface (Main Menu -> Account -> Buy Mirada Pro);

2) Contacting CineSoft directly.

Product keys can be issued for 1, 3, 6, 12 months of validity or for an unlimited time.

Please note that Mirada Pro product keys are “node-locked”, i.e., bound to a particular workstation – this policy is opposite to Cerebro traditional “floating licenses”. We must take into account that unlike Cerebro, Mirada Pro is a highly specialized toolkit required by a comparatively small part of a whole facility. So, this licensing approach seems to be more economically effective in terms of company’s software assets and investments. Besides, Pro functions have rather specific hardware requirements and therefore it doesn’t make much sense in installing Mirada Pro on every PC in the house.

New Cerebro version ^{, 201103:12 June 17, 2011}

User Avatars

User avatars can be added to a user profile here:
Main menu -> Cerebro Astro -> Profile…




Universe administrators can attach avatars to material resources on Resources tab in Administrator window.
Main menu -> Tools -> Administrator…



Now every message in a forum can be identified by its creator’s avatar.
You may change Avatar size in Main menu -> Cerebro Astro -> Preferences.

Getting Started Wizard

This wizard helps create and set up a new project structure.



The wizard consists of several steps to create Users, Groups, Projects and set up permissions & access rights
It’s not obligatory to make all those steps, the wizard can either be closed at any moment or skip several steps and switch to, for example, creation of a new project.
The wizard shows automatically at the 1st time Cerebro starts up. After having been closed it can be launched again manually either in the Main menu -> Tools -> Wizards

(По-русски) Фестиваль “Идея! 2011″ – наш отчет ^{, 201122:38 May 19, 2011}

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