SberMarketing Case Study

Task trackers help organize work and improve business processes. In this case study from SberMarketing, Egor Kasatsky, head of the computer graphics department, shares insights into how post-production is organized at the company and how the team works together to improve their project management system.

At SberMarketing, we are a creative agency that takes on projects involving filming, 2D and 3D graphics, key visuals, banners, outdoor advertising, and special projects. All of this requires computer graphics — which is exactly what our department specializes in.

I’ve worked at several studios that use Cerebro, so I’m familiar with its interface and some of the features. We chose Cerebro because it meets all our needs. That, and I also like to support Russian products. It’s great to communicate with customer support and the team in my native language. This also indirectly contributes to the product’s development.

Some departments in our company use YouTrack, which is a Kanban-based alternative to Cerebro. However, it doesn’t fully meet the needs of those of us in post-production who work with high-resolution video. Relying on such non-specialized trackers along with other software isn’t ideal, and developing our own solution to serve all departments in a large company would require substantial resources and support.

The Team: Who uses the system?

SberMarketing has been using Cerebro for five years. There are more than 30 people in our computer graphics department, and all of them utilize this system.

We’ve always maintained a standard team structure, with art directors overseeing specific areas like 2D and 3D, along with a compositing supervisor, a 2D animation supervisor, a 3D graphics supervisor, and artists. We’re currently setting up an agile team for the 3D department to give team members more independence in their workflow. This will allow them to set their own tasks instead of relying on supervisors. Right now, our traffic manager oversees task management and updates the team’s workload table. I’ll explain more as I go over how we organize our workflow.

CG department: Project tracking

All of our CG projects are made using specialized software, CInema 4D, Houdini, Maya, so we upload both the intermediate and final results to Cerebro.

On average, our projects range from a week to a month and a half, with the longest projects lasting up to three months. We operate in the Russian advertising market, which means our projects typically do not extend for years like they might in the West.

“It’s exciting to work on a big global idea. My team tends to steer clear of movies or TV series, which can take several years to complete. We prefer advertising — projects that are carefully measured, engaging, and present unique challenges.”

Sometimes, when the workload gets overwhelming, we bring in extra help to get the job done. Our main priority is to deliver a quality product on time, so we focus on effectively managing our existing resources while also securing additional support as needed.

Experience using Cerebro

When workers — designers and graphic artists — begin using Cerebro, it usually takes them about a week or two to get the hang of it. They quickly see how convenient the features are, even if the interface looks a bit daunting at first. On the other hand, supervisors need to learn more features and tools, so they usually take a bit longer to master everything.

To make the interface easier to use, we simplify it by disabling most buttons and keeping just “To Do” and “Navigator,” which is usually enough. We also set up specific filters. This way, when a new employee joins, they can immediately understand where to find tasks and what needs to be done.

From the start, we’ve established a consistent hierarchical structure for our projects that remains unchanged over time.

All our projects follow a standardized naming convention. We create descriptions using specific tags, abbreviations, and the names of key team members like producers and supervisors, who are then organized into custom tags.

We continuously add more shots and episodes. Sometimes, we have custom tasks that require non-standard animation and compositing.

This entire process is streamlined with custom buttons. We kick off a project by answering a specific set of questions. We integrate with YouTrack, where projects are created, and then everything is automatically populated in Cerebro. The key is to maintain a proper structure, with a hierarchy set up based on local file storage.

If we look closer, here’s what Cerebro did for SberMarketing: a producer starts a project and shares some initial details, which are automatically sent to Cerebro. The tasks are assigned to team members, and a team chat is created for the producer, supervisor, and relevant specialists. This is all done using tags.

“The process of creating projects and assigning team members is almost completely automated. We also set up a clear structure on the storage server with a specific working folder. This structure is really important because it helps everyone on the team know exactly where to find everything.”

Additionally, the team at Cerebro has made it so that when we open a specific task — like animation or compositing — and choose one of the programs, we immediately get access to the right tools and their color spaces. For instance, we have Nuke, Sync, and After Effects available. This means that the project will be created in a designated folder with a specific name and will open automatically.

For the user, it’s really straightforward: they receive a task and just click a button. The project opens up, and they can start working right away. They don’t need to create a project or write anything. This approach helps keep our naming and versioning consistent. Each custom preset comes with its own specific settings. This is one of the global tools we’ve been testing and refining.

The team at Cerebro also added a useful feature that lets us click on any file in the system to instantly get a shareable link. Another custom feature is the notification system that reminds us of team members’ upcoming birthdays.

When it comes to standard tools, we often use My Space. It shows what projects each team member is working on and their status. You can also access projects directly from My Space. Another favorite of ours is Mirada; we believe it makes up about 50% of the entire system.

The advantages of working with Cerebro

The Cerebro team is dedicated to meeting the needs of businesses. If any tools are missing, they’re always happy to develop whatever the client needs.

Working with Russian software development companies is much easier than working with foreign ones, especially for product development. For instance, if our team needs a particular calendar, we can simply call the Cerebro team to request a custom version that fits the needs of our managers and team. They always say, “Yes, we can do that,” and they actually deliver. It’s great! Every integration requires teamwork from multiple people, often involving NDAs, security and cybersecurity checks . Fortunately, with Cerebro, all of this is hassle-free.

Over more than five years of working together, they’ve created seven user plugins for us, along with several server plugins. We regularly call each other and interact like true business partners.

Interaction with employees

Speaking of workflow chaos, I have a story I’d like to share. We promoted someone to a supervisory role and put them in charge of leading projects. Until then, they had only managed their own tasks. This time, they had to coordinate with four artists as a manager. Later, that person came up to me and said, “Now I get it. Working in total chaos is tough.”

In an unstructured system, you can run into a wide variety of problems, such as “Check it out in Telegram,” “I saved the wrong version,” “I showed it to you, and you said we needed something different,” and “There’s nothing in Cerebro.” In recent years, even training courses and the organizational process itself have come to rely on task trackers. So, having one is essential for production.

Many regular employees don’t think about timelines, life cycles, and information tools the way supervisors do. At first, it might feel like an extra layer of complexity in their work. However, as they grow professionally, they begin to realize that having structure makes things easier. We then start adding new features together to improve our processes, month after month. This is partly because some tasks are repetitive, which pushes us to automate and streamline. As a result, we always create additional scripts, connections, and links.

Result

I see many benefits in using Russian software because it provides more opportunities to improve our processes. This is an ongoing journey with plenty of room for growth. Other tangible benefits include saving time on repetitive tasks, establishing a clear hierarchy, and creating a unified system for filing reports, storing materials, and tracking progress.