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(По-русски) Фестиваль “Идея! 2011″ – наш отчет
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(По-русски) Национальный фестиваль рекламы Идея! 2011
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Photos and presentations from 2011 OGIC
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Mirada Pro Beta Testing Is Opened!
We are glad to inform you that the long-waited Mirada Pro Player beta testing is opened! Mirada Pro not only displays pics and video in stereoscopic 3d mode but gives you a unique tool for drawing and typing comments over it. Parallax adjustable comments!
If you wish to take part in beta testing you’ll need the following :
- Windows or Linux-based OS 32 / 64 bit or Mac Os X (10.5 – 10.6)
- Some equipment to watch steroscopic 3D, either anaglyph red-cyan eyeglasses and any nVidia/Ati/Intel graphic controller, or a 3D Vision kit and an nVidia Quadro series graphic controller plus a 120 Hz monitor with 3D support.
Steps to be made:
- Sign up to Cerebro demo version if you don’t have a Cerebro account
- Download and install Cerebro desktop client if you don’t have it
- Download the zip archive (26 Mb) with Mirada Pro (Win / Linux 32|64 / Mac Os X)
- Save a reserve copy of the current Mirada binary file (for ex. win mirada.exe located in Cerebro folder)
- Unpack the downloaded archive and replace the default Mirada binary file with Mirada Pro.
- Read Mirada Pro stereo mode user manual here.
Important: Mirada Pro beta license is valid till May 13, 2011!
Soon you’ll be able to purchase Mirada Pro for a small fee.
We’ll be glad to get your feedback here or on our Tech Support portal: http://cinesoft.zendesk.com
New – Resource Reports and and сopy task
Performance Improved
Cerebro speed is drastically increased while:
- tasks browsing,
- task properties editing, esp. while multi-task editing
- task copying, duplicating and multi-task creation by files drag-n-drop into Navigator.
- messages posting
and all the rest functions work much faster now!
Material Resource Usage Reports
A new feature developed – material resource usage reporting.
Advanced Copying Features
First, a copied (duplicated) task preserves all the links between its sub-tasks.
Second, now a copied task can be pasted in two different ways: ordinary Paste (Ctrl+v) and Special Paste (Ctrl+Shift+v).
In this realise we and may other features and updates .
More information here
Case Study – Advance Digital
This month we’re interviewing Yulia Kozhevnikova from the Advance Digital advertising agency.
Please tell us a little about your company.
We are one of the leading web-advertising companies in Russia; when you look at the advertising volume of our clients on the web, we are in the top three. In the past two years, we have been actively developing the creative department – more specifically, ‘digital creative’: from banners to more unusual things such as projection, 3D, and so on.
What in particular do you do? Do you specialize in any particular media, like the web or the print? Could you maybe tell us about some of your clients? How long have you been using Cerebro, and what kind of projects do you use it for?
We’ve been using Cerebro for the past 6 months. We only work with the web, and my particular division is devoted to creative work for the web. As far as I know, out colleagues from the media department have also begun using Cerebro for their needs.
At the moment, for example, we are developing a number of web-sites for one very large client, and we’re also working on a number of web-pages for a well-known perfume brand. These are the kinds of projects we use Cerebro for. We’re also always have a few smaller things happening: banners for ongoing advertising campaigns, things like that.
Why did you decide to look for a project management system?
Thanks to a client.
It’s kind of a long story. Out holding (Gruppa ADV, http://www.advgroup.ru – ed.) has its own management system, which is, unfortunately, ill-suited to the kind of work we do, although it can be useful to some for accounting purposes – time-tracking, etc. There’s no access for clients or freelancers. At first, out software engineers tried to systematize the work we do, but their approach is kind of different, and it was hard to explain their ideas to accounts.
Then we won a bid for a contract with a large client, and one of the conditions was that we use a project management system. We chose Cerebro.
I wish more of our clients had clients like that! 
What do you do first when you open Cerbero? How do use it in your work, how do your employees use it?
Personally, I never close it at all. One of out past sales directors taught us to never shut down the computer – so we never close our e-mail clients and never shut down computers. To this mantra I’ve added ‘never close Cerebro’. If I need to do something, I just switch over to its window and do it. We do everything in Cerebro – assign tasks to employees, pass files over to the client, discuss details with them, use it as an IM, and so on. Some clients even refuse to discuss anything unless it’s by phone or in Cerebro. And since you can’t always spend half an hour talking on the phone, it’s easier to just message them with what we’ve done and how. We send them mockups, JPG and PSD files, documents — everything.
We are not using the statistics system, and haven’t got a good grasp on budgeting, but we don’t really need them at this stage.
When did you realize that all employees are using Cerebro, and how hard was transition?
Designers switched to Cerebro straight away, it’s very convenient for them, so they use it, and the software engineers are exactly the kind of people who would love it.
Some people never made the switch, and I don’t they ever will. It’s the kind of creative people who aren’t necessarily good with new tech.
For example, copyrighters are used to writing copy, so it’s hard for them that they need to open some app, send some kind of ‘Review’ or ‘Report’… In the end, we realized they don’t really need it and stopped trying to force it on them, since their work is different. Especially given that they never talk to the client.
How long did it take to integrate the system into your workflow?
I think it took us about a week to get comfortable. The client spent, maybe, a month asking questions, worrying that they deleted something they should not have or that they couldn’t do something they wanted to. Also, at first I used to give them administrator status and then take it away all the time, and they couldn’t understand why yesterday they could assign tasks, and now they can’t. But we got the hang of it quickly, that the business we’re in – you have to be quick on the uptake, or you get left behind.
If you had to choose a project management system for an advertising agency that had never used one before, what criteria would you look at?
We focused on usability, how easy it is to work with the system. Everyone uses it, so, as I’ve mentioned, people in accounts have to understand how the system works, too – after all, we are not software engineers, we are simple users.
We also tested the system on the client, whether it suits them or not. Plus, we had to consider whether we could introduce the system from a technical point of view – so the first people to ask were IT-administrators and programmers, since it’s an important issue.
And what about the specific features – if you worked with media other than the web, would Cerebro fit your needs?
I think that it’s a very convenient system for an advertising agency (especially once you get the hang of reports…). And it’s very convenient that you can open it to freelancers. It’s a great system for all kinds of graphic design and Client Service, as well. So, I think, it would work great for video-production and print design, too, not just the web.
What size of files do you usually upload to Cerebro?
It varies. I once had to upload something like 800 MB… But mostly they are under 200 MB or so.
Do you use the drawing function or audio comments?
Yes, we do – both text and audio, if we can’t be bothered to draw and it’s easier to just talk. Not everyone, though, has a headset – although we’ve bought a few for this particular purpose, so that problem is no longer there. Drawing is convenient, too, of course, as some our clients used to do this in MS Power Point, which means we had to spend more time on it. Now they just ‘scribble’ in Cerebro.
What do you think is missing in terms of drawing?
I think everything is in place, I don’t see any weak spots.
How many clients have you managed to convince to switch to Cerebro?
For now, only the two largest ones: one for the media department and one for us. There’s also another client, whose tasks are managed in Cerebro, but who doesn’t have access to it. That is, we work on several projects there, but only two of the clients have access.
What would you improve, add, or change in Cerebro?
One small niggle is that you can’t have a text message notification when a comment is added.
As I see it, the system isn’t well suited to things like generating reports. I don’t mean accounting for internal needs, but rather things like invoicing where you can summarize costs, man-hours, and so on.
And in our industry, it would be ideal if you could not only transfer Flash files, but also comment on them, like with video. This is the kind of thing we need
And, finally, a major gap is user role customization. At the moment, some of our clients can see, for example, the time spent on their tasks, even though they don’t need that information. That’s because we have to give them the ‘Supervisor’ role, where they can assign tasks to us, instead of the ‘Client’ role.
Yes, we know about this and we are working on customizable access rights (with user presets), where the client can assign tasks in one part of the projects, but wouldn’t see some things like budgets and hours.
Yes, that would be great!
Thank you very much for your time.
(По-русски) Курс Управление медиа-проектами
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Design I Reklama 2011
April 4-7 Central House of Artists (Moscow) hosts Design I Reklama 2011, the 17th Exhibition of Advertising Industry.
Our participation in the event will be our first step to focus on advertising market where we’ll offer Cerebro as a project management solution for full-cycle campaigns, from planning and creative ideas through production and media.
At our booth you’ll meet Cerebro developers and CineSoft management and will have a chance to ask questions and “push all those buttons”.
Looking forward to meeting you there!
Venue: Booth No.9-17, Central House of Artists, 10, Krymsky val, Moscow.
Additional info about the exhibition is here.
Testing Cerebro for iPhone и iPad
We’ve started Cerebro for iOS beta testing. This version is built for Apple Inc. mobile devices – iPad и iPhone.
A month ago we invited iPad users only to test new fetures of this version and today we gladly welcome all iPhone users as well!
If you wish to join our testing team please submit your request to: khar@cinesoft.ru !
OGIC Conference
April 8-10, 2011 Saint Petersburg hosts The First Annual Gaming and 3D Industry Conference - OGIC.
On April 9, during the Day of CGI & 3D, we’ll take the floor with our seminar – “Media Project Management Systems”.
Our CEO, Konstantin Kharitonov, will touch upon the following common issues:
- How to shorten production cycle?
- How to reduce iterations on comments and revisions?
- How to transfer information between people without loss or misunderstandings?
- How can one say / write things that can be hardly expressed by words?
- How vendors and freelancers can be managed and controlled?
Venue: Petrocongress Hall, 5, Lodeinopolskaya street, Saint Petersburg, Russia
See you there!
PS: if your company resides in Saint Petersburg we can arrange a separate presentation of Cerebro for your stuff one of these days. It will be absolutely free, at a convenient time for you, at your office. Send your applications to khar@cinesoft.ru.
СPS 2011 – March 15-17
March 15-17 , 2011 the 8-th specialized exhibition of services for TV and Cinema production, CPS / Cinema Production Service, will be hosted in Moscow Expocenter.
CPS/ Cinema Production Service is Russia’s only specialized exhibition of services for television and film in the format of b2b (business-to-business), focused on producers and all professionals directly involved in the process of filmmaking.
A new event – Cameraman’s Day will be held during the exhibition alongside with the traditional annual CPS Award «For achievements in filmmaking».
The prize will be awarded in the following categories:
- Best New Technology
- Best Visual Effects
- Best Production Company
- Special Nomination
The Cinesoft products will be presented at the booth of our reseller and longtime partner – JCSI Company. Alongside with Cinesoft principal product – Cerebro Project Management System – a brand new pre-released product will be introduced – Element Media Asset Management.
We will be glad to meet you there!
Venue: Moscow, Expocentre, pav. 7, Hall 6 (Krasnopresnenskaya embankment., 14)
More information about the exhibition here
New office and Director :)
On March 09, 2011 we moved in a new fancy office near Electrozavodskaya Metro Station.
Now we bathe in the spring sun and admire Moscow sights outside our windows on the 7th floor! .
Our new address: ul. Bolshaya Pochtovaya, 55/59.
And, by the way, our new phone number: +7 (495) 980-03-76.
The rest contacts remain the same.
And one more thing – we have new Deputy Director (see pics below).
By the way HDR mode on iPhone4 totally works
Cerebro updated Forum
Message type can be selected/changed in the Add or Edit dialog windows.
Files can be dragged-and-dropped right onto a forum thread.
And it calls an Add message dialog window with the dropped files attached to it.
Every forum message now has 2 new buttons, Edit and Reply.
Locked docks
All docks (Navigator, Forum, Gannt chart, etc.) are now locked by default, i.e. they can’t be detached and moved.
To unlock the docks you must uncheck the box View -> State docks-> Fixed docks.
Bugs Fixed
Incorrect connection via a proxy server.
A zero hash file upload error.
Crash caused by date/time adjustment in the New Task dialog window.
Crash caused by Navigator’s Panels style.
Invisible parent tasks for the Restricted Worker role.
More information here
Zendesk Support and a new LiveChat system
We gladly inform you that we’ve implemented Zendesk technical support portal. Its URL is http://cinesoft.zendesk.com
There you’ll find docs and manuals and an easier and more efficient way for bug reporting. For example, an e-mail message sent to support@cinesoft.ru automatically creates a new ticket in Zendesk.
We’ve made a decision to close all duplicating communication channels for our tech support team:
- Forum + User Echo Forum on Cerebro website,
- Cerebro for Clients thread within Cerebro itself.
We shall gradually move all the information that has been accumulated there to Zendesk.
The portal interface:
Besides, we’ve implemented a new much more convenient LiveChat system in Cerebro website – the best way to contact us!
You’ll find the link to the LiveChat in the upper right corner of every webpage.
(По-русски) Итоги XVI Открытого Российского фестиваля анимационного кино
Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian
Case Study – N3
This month we talk with Timofei Penkov production director of N3.
Timofei, could you tell me a little bit about the history of your company?
The company is more than 6 years old. At present, we are one of the leading post-production companies in Russia. We specialize in the production of graphic elements for TV channels and computer-generated imagery for advertising spots. We very rarely work with special effects for cinema, although this is always a possibility for us. When it comes to CGI, we prefer motion-design for TV and complex advertising projects the most.Andrei Golikov, who has worked at N3 since its foundation, is the head of the company.
What projects have you worked on lately, and what are you working on now?
Right now we are producing four elaborate advertising spots and one full-HD broadcast for NTV+’s stereo-channel. Before that, we made a few ads and on-air packages for such TV-channels as Rossiya-2, DTV, and REN, the design for TV-programmes on the Russian Channel 5, Rossiya, and a few others. Even before I joined it, and certainly after, the company was working with, I think, all the leading TV-channels in Russia.
When and on what kind of projects did you begin to use Cerebro?
We started using Cerebro about a year ago. It took a while to get used to it, but in the end I prevailed and now we use the software a lot. We switched to the local version, because we were too dependent on the Internet connection, its speed and so on, and when you are using something a lot, such limitations are difficult to live with. So, it’s been about a year since we’ve started putting all imaginable tasks that need to be done to complete a project in Cerebro.
What helped you get used to Cerebro?
For me, the moment you know that a piece of software has caught on is when everyone knows where to look for things. It’s been a while since anyone has asked: ‘Where’s this file or the other?’ It’s always in Cerebro, attached to your task.
As a manager, which functions of Cerebro do you use the most?
We don’t use budgeting in Cerebro, because the reality of the market is such that the budget is decided long before the project starts, and the final budget is confirmed basically during the bidding process. By the time the project begins to be fleshed out, all the budgets have been fixed upon and there are no financial discussions. But I’m absolutely sure that if a company, say, only works with freelance designers, this function could be extremely useful for the head of that company. They would probably have an hourly rate of some kind, and they could calculate and analyze the invoice for the whole project at once. We use Cerebro for the dailies and as a database. All comments, all dailies, and every time we send something off is recorded there, which can be very helpful during discussions with the client.
Do you use the Gant diagram? Or do you use something else for scheduling?
Yes, we use it. We used it a lot at first. However, because it doesn’t always stack up to reality, we tend to use it for larger projects now, which last more than three weeks. For us, the Gant diagram is a planning tool, when we need to see, where things overlap. But I would also like to be able to use colour-coded tags, as it would be easier for me to look at the colour and see whether the status is ‘I’ve sent off the materials, awaiting reply’ or ‘There has been a reply’.
Do you use the drawing function, text comments, audio comments?
We use text comments all the time, we’ve made it our standard policy. If something isn’t in Cerebro, it’s as if it never existed, especially in discussions with clients. For example, instructions over the phone may be heard, but not carries out. This is why we always have text comments. Everyone needs them – both the person who is told to do something, and the manager who tells them to do it. We haven’t really been using the drawing and audio functions, because we have an open-space office and don’t have any one working from home, so if something needs to be discussed, we can do it at the office. The art-director, when we are discussing a project, tells everyone how they see each task and the clip as a whole. Then, when people get actual instructions, they sit down together with the art-director, who explains exactly what he wants from them. Because we can have a lot of tasks, and most of them are quite small and short, we usually don’t need any further comments in terms of execution. This can happen with large cinema projects, but we don’t use it.
Are you getting more sleep now that you’re using Cerebro?
Well, I’ll never get enough sleep, but there’s no feeling of chaos now. This is what Cerebro is for, it helps to get rid of information overload. Now everyone knows, where everything is. Everyone knows, what they need to do, everyone knows where to look for information, everyone knows, where to put things. And this is about one-third of the task as a whole. Before we had Cerebro, there were these folders ‘In’, ‘Out’, ‘Mail’, ‘Complete’, ‘Complete 2’, no-one knew where to find anything. Now all the dailies and the complete clips are in Cerebro, and it’s a lot easier to work with information.
Which Cerebro client are you using? Mac OS, Windows, Linux, Web-based or maybe the iPhone app?
All the designers are using the Microsoft Windows version, and most of them don’t need anything else, they don’t even use Cerebro at home. There are a few guys who love to work so much that they’ve installed Cerebro on their computers at home. People come to the office in the morning and say: ‘Oh, hey, a comment, great!’ The pop-up notifications are working great for us. Personally, I use Cerebro all the time, I’ve installed it everywhere – on my iPad, on my iPhone, on my Macbook, on the computer at work… But I’ve customized everything, so that I can use PPM to comment something on the iPad or upload it, and so on. By the way, on the iPad the images look bolder and, let’s say, prettier. It would be great if you could write messages when you are offline, and then sync them with the database.
Yes, we are working on that at the moment. And we will add these functions to the main Cerebro version as well, so that you can edit, comment, and create items on your laptop without an Internet connection. What else would you like to see in Cerebro? Do you find the interface usable?
At first, everyone hated the interface, as we have a company-full of creative types, they all criticised it, said it was unusual and hard to use. Mostly people use the navigator with the lights, nothing else. I don’t have any real problems with it. There are a few little annoyances, for example, how you need to always enter numbers when you name tasks, so that they are sorted by name, which is quite inconvenient.
Yes, we are working on a sorting function with arrows up or down.
That would be useful.
Are there any other programs that you think should be integrated with Cerebro workflow?
You should just make it possible to improve Cerebro with a SDK and to export data to other applications.
Yes, we’ll release a SDK soon, which will make all of this possible.
Thank you for answering my questions.
Other works on – http://www.n3workshop.com
Cerebro SaaS has been restored completely!
The denial of service occurred at 22:00 (+3 GMT) on Feb. 17 and lasted until 16:00 (+3 GMT) on 18 February.
The incident affected only SaaS (Studio/Private/Demo) users. No user data was affected or lost.It was the first (and we hope the last) incident of server hardware failure.
We make every effort to eliminate any chance of such incidents to repeat in future, namely, we deploy another data replicating server in another data center outside Russia.
Besides, we’re implementing a new Help Desk based on Zendesk solution to improve our support quality.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Cerebro update
User Profile Edit
Administrators are enabled to edit user profiles. If a user belongs to one and the only universe Administrator can edit any profile field, including user e-mail and password.
Users are enabled to edit their logins.
A Deleted Account Restoration
It has been made possible to restore a deleted user account by his/her e-mail address.
Pop-up Tooltips
Columns in task lists (Navigator, Interesting Tasks list) have pop-up tooltips now, e.g., pointing to one of the Planned costs/Actual costs/Balance columns causes a pop-up tooltip with detailed info on all 3 parameters.
Tags
Columns with tags now have headlines. These headlines are preserved while being exported to Excel.
User Statistics
A click on a task on the User Stats page makes Navigator switch to the same task.
Statistics re-calculates after pressing Calculate Statistics button.
(По-русски) XVI Фестиваль Анимационного Кино
Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian
Testing Cerebro for iPad
Looking for beta testers Cerebro iPad, please write to khar@cinesoft.ru
