Hashtags

Hashtags are textual markers used to mark tasks, messages, and attachments. A hashtag is a specific word, but a given item can have several such markers. Hashtags can be used to perform searches either in the address bar or in the search tab. If you need to find all the tasks with the hashtag, you need click to the hashtag while holding the Control key. If you want to find the tasks with several hashtags, you can select those hashtags and pick “Find for hashtag” from context menu.

Mirada Updates

Drag-n-drop markers on timeline

Edit the lifetime of paintings in review by dragging and dropping their markers on the timeline. The range of in-out frames can now be changed in a similar way.

Onion Skin Mode

Onion Skin Mode can now be activated when reviewing video files. This mode is designed for creating animated paintings in the review layer. To do this, activate the Onion Skin checkbox in the review toolbar. The mode’s other settings, which you can use to set the range of visible paintings before and after the current frame, as well as their transparency, will then become available.

Mirada Pro is now Free

Since support for Mirada Pro is no longer available, all of its functions have now been transferred to the standard version:

• saving reviews to the hard drive;
• color correction tools;
• online reviews of media files;
• viewing and review stereoscopic images (pictures and video files).

Other Changes

The control bar now has a button for fast-switching between media libraries. It is active only for formats that can be opened by more than a single supported library, e.g. QuickTime API and .ffmpeg. The review toolbar now has a button for sending a review to Cerebro without closing Mirada (useful when working with several files in playlist).

New languages: Simplified Chinese, Japanese

New interface languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese.

Full release notes

Today we spoke with Himakumar Kilari, VP Post Production at Prasad Group.

Today Konstantin Kharitonov talks with Hideki Kawata, CG artist at Transparent House.

From April 21th to May 2th we’re planning to visit a number of Animation / VFX facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad with live product demonstration and presentations. We would like to show Cerebro to the India VFX / Animation crowd. Because their feedback’s will be very valuable for us and for further product development. Our local representative will help us in India, so that we will be able to find the right words with the customers. And by the way, if you are interested in Cerebro, our India Road trip is a great chance to see the product and have a free presentation by the product developers in your office. If you are located somewhere around our planned route, please send to Konstantin Kharitonov (khar@cerebrohq.com), an enquiry and we will drop-in to your place too!

Mercury Visual Solutions is a rapidly growing post-house, focusing on the development of advanced post-production technologies. Our artistic & constructive team continually strives to provide our clients with the out most quality, always living up to the Mercury trustworthy reputation. The Mercury teams always takes extra care to cherish our clients’ vision, whilst cultivating it using the latest cutting-edge techniques, in the post production industry

Building on our experience & vision in the market, we have the pleasure to announce new additions to our services, allowing us to provide turnkey solutions for our clients’ post production needs.

Please visit our website www.mercuryvfx.com for more information on our services, and portfolio.

For any inquiries, please don’t hesitate to send E-mail to rkamal@mercuryvs.com

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mercury-Visual-Solutions/556330027738480
Twitter:https://twitter.com/MecuryVS

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We are proud to present a new cycle of interviews on how Cerebro is used in companies. This month we interviewed  Elena Chugunova and Anastasia Pashenkova, project managers at “Petersburg” animation studio.

Here it comes! A whole European Road-show. During the whole month of March we are going to visit some of our most important local-reseller partners in the European Union, and with their help we will be able to find the right words with the local customers. The whole month is packed with meetings in the great European places for Postproduction and VFX. Starting from the beginning of March 6-10th in Paris, then 11-15th the Benelux countries (particularly Brussels, Luxembourg and Amsterdam cities) and for the whole two weeks from 18 to 28th of March we will enjoy Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Munich. In every place we will stay no more than 4 days, during which we will show our Cerebro, personally to all the guys who are eager to learn more about our product, so to say. Their feedback will be important for us and for our future product development, also it will give us a great product promotion opportunity.

And by the way, if you are interested in Cerebro, our European Road trip is a great chance to see the product and have a free presentation by the product developers in your office. If you are located somewhere around our planned route, please send to Konstantin Kharitonov (khar@cinesoft.ru), an enquiry and we will drop-in to your place too!

We gladly present a new Cerebro Serpens version.

Its major difference from the previous versions is a possibility of two-way communication in the Forum between Cerebro users and the people who do not have full accounts in Cerebro (for more understanding we will call them “Email users”). See below how it works, and also about other innovations inside this new version.

A New Type of Users: Email User

In fact, a Cerebro email user is just an email address registered in the system to which copies of messages from the Forum are sent. Files attached to the Forum messages are not transferred as files, but they are sent as download links. The letter, usually, looks like this:

In this screenshot you see that this letter comes from Cerebro  to the  user’s email , and the answer to this letter is automatically published back in Cerebro, in the corresponding thread of the Forum, together with its attachments  (if those were added to the answer):

Email users’ accounts are free of charge but their amount is limited, it is equal to the amount of the “standard” user accounts in your universe. See the “Universe” tab of the “Administrator” panel to get the amounts of used/unused accounts of both types.

Check out the official whitepaper to know more about this feature.

Inline editing

Editing the task properties, previously possible in a special “Task properties” tab only, now is accessible in all table interfaces displaying such properties: in the Navigator, in Statistics, in the «ToDo» and «Followed Tasks» lists.

Inline editing, from the user point of view, is similar to data editing in spread sheets:

It is possible to edit all the tags and task properties, including lists of allocated performers and “followers”.

Other New Features

• Expanding a task tree in the Navigator by a single click.
• A new option – forced file upload by Cargador (available if Cargador service is running on a file server, not on a workstation).
• Repeated creation of tasks with identic properties. Two new buttons – «Save and Close» and «Save and New Task» are replacing the “Save” button.
• Binding serial tasks into a Gantt chart sequence. Check the «Link the next task to this task» checkbox to use this option.
• A status bar appears in the main interface. It displays the amount of tasks/items selected/unread, alongside with some filter indicators.
• Instant tag setting for a range of selected tasks.
• Tweaking default amount of planned work time for newly created tasks (in the project properties).
• New features of the “User Statistics” interface:
  • Unlimited depth of detailing.
  • Any column can be exported to Excel.
  • Progress percentage, time and budget amounts are summed up on higher levels by the selected users.

• Much faster performance due to optimized database queries.
• New search criteria introduced:
  • By task status: «Task is Event», «Task is paused», «Task closed».
  • By names of deleted users.
• Password reset disable option.
• Definition can be copied from one task to another and pasted to an empty Forum thread.
• Default task start time selection: new tasks start either in the moment they are created or at the same time when the project was created. You can select the proper option in the “Projects” tab of the “Administrator” panel.
• Login window displays the current build number.

More information

 

Photos from IBC 2012

Who missed the speech by James Cameron? 🙂

 

On September 7-13 we are planning to visit the IBC conference in Amsterdam. Straight after the show we will have several meetings with Postproduction/VFX facilities there, for them we will have our live product demonstration and presentations, will show them some new smoking secret features of our product :).

We are looking forward to show Cerebro to VFX/ Post production crowd, because their feedbacks will be very valuable for us and for further product development. With the help of our local reselling partner in Benelux, who will be able to find the right words with the customers there.

If you are interested in our product, please mail to Konstantin Kharitonov (khar@cinesoft.ru), and we will drop in to your place too!
Stay tuned for more updates about our trips!.. Yeah, trips! Haha! 🙂

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«We are no different from any real studio: the student who successfully passes our  test, is no different from the expert who is handling  over real work».Today Konstantin Kharitonov  talks with Ekaterina Cherkes-Zade, the director of Scream School, a computer graphics school and the Moscow film school.

Today Konstantin Kharitonov talks with the heads of Moscow VFX-studio Trigraph — Arkady Dubinyn (Supervisor) and Olga Nikulina (Producer).

On May 14-16 we’re planning to visit a number of Postproduction/VFX facilities in Warsaw, with live product demonstration and presentations.

We would like to show Cerebro to the Polish VFX/ Post production crowd. Because their feedback’s will be very valuable for us and for further product development.

And our local reseller will help us in Poland, so that we will be able to find the right words with the customers,

Please mail to Konstantin Kharitonov (khar@cinesoft.ru), and we will drop-in to your place too!

By the way, in the first-half of June we will have a whole European Road-show! Stay tuned for more updates!

Yes, we knew once it would happen.

The time has come – we’re going to London!

On February 21-23 we’re planning to visit a number of VFX and animation facilities in London, Bristol with live demonstrations and presentations.

What’s on the menu this time?

• Cerebro, for sure. We’d like to show it to the UK VFX crowd and their feedback will be really precious for further product development.
• Mirada. We realize that not all of you, guys, may need the whole Cerebro bundle because the mature VFX facilities you work for must have been developed or adopted some kind of project tracker. OK, let’s pump it up with Mirada then! We’re launching it as a standalone product line right after the show.
• Cargador. Don’t you think that good ol’ FTP is getting a bit… obsolete? Yes, we assume that the English would rather call it “established” or “traditional” but still… Would you mind not to get your files corrupted on transmission or accessed by those whom they don’t concern ever again? Take Cargador and make those issues a history!

Want to take part in the show?

Check in by e-mailing to Konstantin Kharitonov (khar@cinesoft.ru) and we’ll drop into your place, too!

Cheers and… hope to see you soon!

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The 10th Annual VES Awards will take place on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, LA, USA. The nominees for awards in 23 categories are announced, and we are pleased to congratulate our partners in Kiev, POSTMODERN company, nominated for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series with The Bomber project.

As far as we know, this is the first time in history when a CIS-based company is nominated for a VES Award.

So here are the particular people we are proud of:

• Igor Gotsulyak
• Dmitriy Kolesnik
• Egor Olesov
• Dmitriy Ovcharenko

We wish that these names already written in the short list, were also written in that cherished envelope, which will be solemnly opened on stage on February 7!

We keep our fingers crossed, guys!

The complete list of nominees is here.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) is the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Consisting of a diverse group of more than 2,400 members in 20 countries, the VES wants to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.

 

Postmodern is one of the largest postproduction facilities in Ukraine. The portfolio of the studio consists of more than 2,000 commercials, 20 feature films and 100 music videos. Postmodern is a Cinesoft software distribution partner since 2011.

New Visibility Policy For Groups And Users

A new visibility policy takes effect in the current version. Visibility determines if a user is allowed to see other groups / users in various interface elements and whom he/she would see in particular. Visibility is configured on a separate Administrator panel tab – «Who Sees Whom».

Visibility options are the following: the user may see everybody in the universe, or the user may see definite groups only, or the user may not see anybody in the universe.

Visibility options for a user profile can be set up during its creation process as well.

Previous visibility policy was the following: only group-mates were allowed to see each other, i.e. the users had to belong to one and the same group for that. Now this rule is abandoned and group membership doesn’t affect visibility: it is not necessary to be included in a group to see its members and, vice versa, group-mates do not see each other until allowed by Administrator.

New visibility policy release will not affect current visibility settings for existing users though it is recommended to update Cerebro to manage visibility for new users.

Project Templates

You can select one of the existing projects to use it as a template for a new project. Select the project to be a template and select its content and settings you wish to transfer to the new project.

New Wizards

Several new wizards are added to help create new items in Cerebro, such as projects, users, groups etc. The wizards make it easier to create and configure those items. As a rule, a wizard guides you through several quick steps to specify all parameters for an item being created.

The item’s most essential properties are configured on the first step while minor properties are laid back to other steps. So it is obligatory to complete the first step only while the rest steps may be postponed or skipped.

New Administrator Window

The main feature – new Administrator panel works much faster. And some minor improvements were added, such as item renaming by double-click.

User Invitation

Invitation function is back! Its interface can be found here: Administrator -> Users. After the invitation is accepted by the user you get a notification in Cerebro and can set up the user profile parameters to take him/her on board right away!

New Task Alerts

Cerebro sends out e-mail notifications on different events to whom they concern. A new type of event is added – New Task Created. E-mail notification settings are configured here: Main Menu -> Profile.

Personal Data

A user can choose whether to open his/her personal data (e-mail, phone number etc.) to colleagues or not. This option is set up in user profile (Main Menu -> Profile).

Forum Text Zoom

A new feature – text zoom in/out is added to forum threads. Zoom is changed by the buttons in the upper forum panel. Besides, Shrink/Expand All Messages buttons are added onto this panel.

Bugs Fixed

• Report cannot be created by user with peculiar access rights;
• Incorrect task naming if created by file(s) drag-n-drop onto Navigator panel;
• Session could be lost in database;
• Cerebro crash while working with user statistics.

More information here

 

Dear golleagues!

Please, accept our greetings in accordance with upcoming New Year holiday! We wish you a successful year full of technological innovations, ambitious projects, prevented clearance of deadlines and a lot of tasty ice cream!!
Thanks for the cooperation, we hope that our relationships will be even more usefull in the future!

 

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.

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

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.