Mirada — Text Overlay

You can now add explanatory notes directly onto any visual content.

Add text comments directly over images and videos — this helps to accurately highlight elements that require attention. The review process becomes more visual and improves communication within the team.

We have updated the login window to make it more modern and user-friendly.

This will simplify the onboarding process and help users better navigate the login procedures.

We have added the ability to permanently delete projects along with their files, without the possibility of recovery.

Deletion is available only for archived projects when the corresponding permission is enabled in the universe settings. After submitting a deletion request, the project can be restored within 30 days.

This feature helps maintain order in the system and free up storage space.

Functionality Updates in Cerebro, Mirada, and Tentaculo.

New Search in Cerebro

Now, searching within user lists, statuses, and other system elements works independently of the keyboard layout.

• Type ‘привет’ on an English keyboard layout (‘ghbdtn’) or ‘hello’ on a Russian layout (‘руддщ’)—the system will find the correct result.
• Transliteration is supported: for example, ‘Aleksey’ instead of ‘Алексей’ or ‘Прогресс’ instead of ‘Progress.’

This simplifies search and saves time by eliminating the need to switch layouts manually.

A new “Me” option has been added to user selection filters. Now, you can create universal boards and automatically see tasks related to the current user.

• Simplifies work by removing the need to manually configure filters.
• Allows quick access to personal tasks (e.g., “all tasks I created“).

Two new features have been added:

• Background change — Choose any background color for images and videos to better highlight details.
• Colored borders — Add borders of any thickness and shade to emphasize content.

These improvements make viewing and working with images more convenient and visually clear.

folder_path key in project_path

The folder_path key has been added to project_path, allowing separate file storage paths within a project. This enables the separation of scenes, assets, and other data.

Example:

"project_path": [
  {
    "folder_path": "/Project/scenes",
    "paths": ["network://projects/scenes"]
  },
  {
    "folder_path": "/Project/assets",
    "paths": ["network://projects/assets"]
  }
]

Priority order:

1. folder_path (if specified)
2. Project + activity type
3. Project
4. Activity type
5. Default value

This provides more flexibility in structuring file storage.

$(date) Variable: Automatic Date Insertion

A new $(date) variable has been added, allowing automatic insertion of the current date and time in file paths and names. This is especially useful for organizing data by date.

Example:

"publish": "/$(task_parent_path)/$(date{%Y-%m-%d})"

Result:

/project/scenes/sc_01/2025-02-28

Using $(date) helps automate work with reports, backups, and project files.

More details on integration can be found in the documentation.

Our Cerebro team wholeheartedly wishes all our clients a Happy New Year! May you all find strength, resilience, and inspiration! We look forward to working with you in the coming year as well 

Check out the updates in our final release of the year.

New Version for MacOS on ARM Processors

We have built a version for Apple’s latest computers that use mX processors (ARM architecture). This update improves the startup speed after installation.

Cerebro now supports importing project structures and specific tasks from tables — including Excel, Google Sheets, and others. Basically, from any table-based formats.

Import is done by copying data from a table to the clipboard. Once the data is pasted, you can assign a specific property to each column. You can also choose a template to create the task structure.

You can import structures with multiple levels, such as shots with work stages.

For instance, you can mark specific columns as subtasks, and they will be created automatically in Cerebro.

In Wiki, images smaller than the article width are now displayed in their original size.

Budgeting, tracking estimates, and managing artist workloads are essential parts of computer graphics production. Since its founding, Black Point has been streamlining processes and enhancing project management.

Executive producer Ksenia Akimenko shares how the team structures data using Cerebro.

Founded in 2022, BlackPoint specializes in computer graphics for film, TV, and advertising. While the studio is relatively young, most of the team has over a decade of industry experience. In partnership with Mesto Sily, we’ve produced major series like Russian Cyberpunk Farm and The Magic District over the past two years, with several other projects set for release. Altogether, we’ve worked on 12 projects for Russian, Chinese, and European markets.

The two major projects mentioned earlier deserve special attention. The studio originally came about thanks to the Russian Cyberpunk Farm project. As we transitioned from short videos to a full series, we knew we needed stronger partnerships. This project, originally by artists for artists, involved a lot of experimentation and challenges, drawing in many who wanted to be part of the Cyber Universe.

Another favorite project is The Magic District. We loved bringing to life the magical characters we grew up with. Placing them in the 21st century, with all the visual effects that require computer graphics, made it exciting. Projects like this give artists a great chance to grow—designing visuals, solving technical challenges, and meeting tight deadlines are all at the heart of our work.

Our main technical processes cover the entire cycle of computer graphics from the very beginning of each project. At the script stage, we create animatics or storyboards to support filming, and we then manage everything through full production, delivering a final product ready for sound and color correction.

How we set up processes

We structure all data, especially when dealing with large volumes of information.

At first, we used basic spreadsheets for budgets and lists, like many companies do. But since we work with a lot of visual content, we needed more: linking to server files, accessing all versions, and tracking comments. This led us to adopt a specialized project management tool.

We chose Cerebro for several reasons. It was one of the tools I used at my first computer graphics job, and many of our colleagues and partner companies rely on it as well.

Cerebro is the most intuitive and user-friendly system out there. It requires no special skills or extensive training, especially for basic functions.

With eight years of experience, I can say the interface is easy to navigate, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user. As a producer, I’ve learned to use its additional features, which make managing countless tables and tasks much easier.

Solving problems in Cerebro

Project management software helps us assess and manage artists’ workloads while tracking the accuracy of project estimates.

Our team consists of 44 people, all of whom work in Cerebro. This includes artists from every department, producers, the DI department, general producers, and even our SMM manager. We also bring in freelancers to the system for specific projects.

Cerebro helps us manage a project from start to finish, ensuring everyone has the information they need. Everyone can see the hours assigned to each task. We can also create technical tasks, attach files or links, and easily track related subtasks and assigned team members.

For producers, Cerebro provides user and project statistics that indicate who has too little work and who is overloaded, allowing for quick adjustments. The project’s progress is also quite clearly displayed, with task statuses linked to completion percentages.

Advantages of Cerebro

One of Cerebro’s biggest advantages is its native design. It’s intuitive and doesn’t require users to spend a lot of time learning how to utilize it. Basic tools like watching dailies and posting reports are easy to find and use, while advanced users can access additional built-in features.

We primarily use the system’s navigator, along with customizable user statistics, resource tracking, and budgets. Artists often rely on the “To-do list” feature when working in Cerebro.

Mirada, Cerebro’s player tool, is particularly convenient. It lets you view shots frame by frame and leave comments on specific frames.

It’s also easy to set up a cache and a rough pre-grade to preview how the shot will look after color correction. I really like the version comparison feature, whether using the curtain tool or playing versions side by side. This is helpful for spotting subtle changes that might not be noticeable at first glance.

We can easily set up visibility and permissions for different groups or users, allowing us to add everyone we need to the universe while restricting access to certain tasks or projects meant for specific individuals. This includes managing access for the “clients” group in Cerebro, where we control what reports and statuses they can see. We also filter information using various parameters.

A bug plus is the recent addition of freelance licenses, which lets us bring in freelance artists and pay for them separately.

Since we can add local features that our studio needs, the system is becoming more convenient and tailored for us.

I also really appreciate the likes and dislikes feature, which allows you to give a thumbs up if you enjoyed a report. However, we’ve had some trouble setting up the Gantt chart correctly since it needs a lot of manual input, which isn’t very convenient for us.

To sum up the benefits, Cerebro has helped us achieve better organization and systematization. Here is what we’ve gained:

• Optimized work processes that help employees find information and solve problems more quickly
• Improved teamwork with fewer lengthy and unnecessary discussions
• Effective tools for data analysis
• All necessary information in one place

Results

In the two years since the studio was founded, we’ve completed 22 projects, delivered 9,000 shots, and created over 300 assets and concepts.

Choosing Cerebro as our main project management tool from the start has been crucial to our success. We’ve reduced the time needed to prepare projects and improved information sharing between departments. With comments and structured technical tasks, we’ve minimized errors and cut down on version iterations. This optimization has also streamlined our team structure, letting us avoid hiring too many producers and coordinators, all thanks to Cerebro’s automation.

Shared Task Boards

We’ve added the option to save pages to company-wide task boards, making them accessible to all users through pre-configured boards. Flexible display settings are available with new filtering options similar to those in My Space.

By default, completed tasks are filtered out.

You can now link tasks and pages from My Space to specific topics in Telegram chats. This can be done both from the Cerebro interface when creating a connection and directly in Telegram by linking tasks to specific topics.

To link a task or page in a topic, use the /add command.

Previously, the Browse buttons in Cerebro and other work software supported only network protocols. Now, they also open file locations for FTP, Yandex.Disk, and Google Drive protocols.

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.

OCIO for colour management

We have connected OpenColorIO (OCIO) in Mirada for high-quality colour management.

It is now possible to save a colour correction set for the specific file types.

Other features and fixes:

• Added zooming with the Alt key and the right mouse button or pen
• Fixed generation of thumbnails when the screen scale is different from 100% (HiDpi)
• Restored the option to paste an image from the clipboard

We have made it possible to set folder_path key as a list. Now you can describe file paths for different projects (branches) in Cerebro all at once.

For example:

"file_path": [
        {
            "folder_path": ["/Project 1", "/Project 2"],
             "publish": "/$(url[0])//$(task_parent_name)/$(task_name)"
             …      
        },
        … 

We have expanded the features of the variables section. Now you can use variables in the variables list inside the same section.

For example:

"variables":
{
    "main_path": "/$(url[0])//$(task_parent_name)/$(task_name)"
    "publish_path": "$(main_path)/publish"
    "version_path": "$(main_path)/versions"
}

 "file_path": [
        {
            "folder_path": "/Project 1",
             "publish":  $(publish_path),
             "version":  $(version_path),
             …      
        },
        …

See the documentation for more details.

Fixes:

• Sorting file lists by version number
• Displaying lists on high-resolution monitors (HiDpi)

Mobile app for all Android versions

An updated Cerebro version has been released to Google Play. It now works on all versions of the Android OS.

Active grouping has been added to My Space. In addition to simply separating a group, it is now possible to collapse groups. In each group you can see the total number of tasks, as well as the number of completed/closed ones.

Added integration with Dropbox.

See the documentation for more details.

Added the History tab, which displays the tasks you visited.

For safe version viewing, we added a file menu item called Open to review (safe mode).

When a version is opened in safe mode, the file is copied to the .vreview version. Then you can make any changes without worrying that we will “ruin” the original version. The postfix name and the path for storing such files can be specified in the configuration file.

For more information, see the documentation.

When a file is opened in such a way, the open_… processors are triggered. The same processors are called when a file is taken into work. To distinguish for what purpose the file is being opened, the “review” = True parameter is passed to the arguments, args.

For more information, see the documentation.

For more convenient filling in the configuration file, we added the section

"variables": 
  {   
  }

Inside the section, you can set your own variables that will be used in the configuration file in the file_path section.

For example:

"variables":
{
    "publish_path": /$(url[0])//$(task_parent_name)/$(task_name)
}

 "file_path": [
        {
            "folder_path": "/Project 1",
             "publish":  $("publish_path"),
             …      
        },
        {
            "folder_path": "/Project 2",
             "publish":  $("publish_path"),
             …
        },

See the documentation for more details.

Wiki

We present for your attention a new tool in Cerebro — Wiki allows you to maintain a knowledge base in a convenient format.

Sections and articles are presented in a tree format. You can add images and videos to your articles.

The Wiki section is available in the web version. To open it on a desktop computer, click on the corresponding button on the app’s main panel.

If you already have a project in Cerebro that has a knowledge base, you can convert it into a wiki. Rename the project into ‘wiki’ and it will appear in the corresponding section. The project itself will not be hidden from the general list yet — you will be able to configure access rights and create a knowledge base from diverse projects.

For more information about Wiki, check out this documentation.

New tags have been added — user (one) and users (one or more).

Tags allow you to add additional properties to tasks, their value can be a user or multiple users. For example, you can add a person responsible for a task or a group for discussion.

All types of tags in Cerebro can be switched into inheritable. When inheritance is enabled, the tag value attributed to the task will be used on all subtasks, i.e. they will have the same values.

You can change the inherited value of subtasks.

Read more about tags in this documentation.

We’ve added integration with Yandex Disk and Google Drive.

To connect drives you need:

1. Set up the configuration for the selected Tentaculo protocol — “yadisk” or “gdrive”
2. Get a token in your Yandex Drive or Google Drive personal account
3. Connect the token using the Tentaculo graphical interface

For more information about integration, read the following documentation.

At Cerebro, we develop a project management system tailored for companies involved in CG, VFX, and animation. Our tools help studios automate workflows and manage creative projects.

In this article, we look at how companies, educational institutions, and creative associations utilize our program to build pipelines. The content is derived from a presentation delivered by our manager, Alyona Dianova, at the CG RAVE 2024 event.

1-2-3 VFX: Setting up a system for a project of considerable scale

1-2-3 VFX specializes in computer graphics. Among its recent projects is The Master and Margarita film, which the team used as an example to discuss their organizational processes in greater detail:

“About 60 people helped make the film, including producers, supervisors, in-house and freelance staff, and technical support personnel. Our studio follows a typical role distribution model with distinct departments, each overseen by its own supervisor. The project supervisor ensures the cohesive visual direction of the project and maintains direct communication with the director, receiving feedback firsthand. Additionally, there is a chief producer and coordinators who aid them in managing the multitude of tasks.

Due to the project’s significant scale, it necessitated a sophisticated organizational setup and a vast server framework for storing and transmitting materials, all of which required meticulous management. Within Cerebro, we worked in two universes, executing tasks and providing feedback on other vendors’ work. A collaborative universe for vendors made tracking shot progress easier and facilitated the exchange of materials and feedback where joint work was involved. Furthermore, our project supervisor used this shared space to review the output of other studios.

Additionally, we worked on the project in our own studio universe, leveraging existing mechanics to build a tailored project system for our tasks. This setup allowed us to extensively manipulate materials on our server and refine shots until they were ready for collective presentation to the director and producers.

We rely heavily on Mirada for viewing, commenting, and comparing versions across all our projects. When collaborating with freelancers, we opt to link them through Cerebro for discussions. The customizable pages feature is particularly handy for management purposes, especially when sorting numerous tasks based on specific criteria. For instance, we frequently use this feature to identify unassigned active tasks or when the supervisor sets a “send material” status. Such functionality becomes indispensable in managing large projects, ensuring we stay organized and don’t miss anything.

We utilize tasks to monitor work hours, with vendors and supervisors logging their time spent on specific activities. This enables us to analyze and compare our initial estimates with the actual hours invested. Moreover, tracking hours allows us to take prompt action if we notice any tasks exceeding their deadlines. In such cases, we aim to promptly address the issue by discussing it with the vendor and identifying suitable solutions, such as seeking assistance from another department or exploring alternative technologies for the task.

Effective teamwork and meticulous management are essential for the success of large projects. To put it simply, it’s like managing a vast and intricate production line, but in a positive sense. Planning the graphics creation process during post-production requires careful consideration in advance. There’s a considerable amount of material that needs to be appropriately distributed among vendors, who must then be introduced to each other and agree on general “rules of the game,” spanning from technical project specifications to handling dailies and statuses. And then, after navigating through all the intermediate stages, the material must be properly submitted for the final assembly. The system you devise must be functional and adaptable to accommodate any changes that may arise throughout the course of long-term projects. In this regard, we take pride in our collaborative organizational efforts, which have allowed us to achieve such remarkable results on the big movie theater screens.”

Film Direction: Switching from ShotGrid to Cerebro

Film Direction is one of the leading Russian creators of visual effects for films and TV series. The studio employs over 50 people, with its portfolio boasting projects for more than 40 major films. In 2020, the company won the Golden Eagle Award for best visual effects in the film Union of Salvation.

In 2023, the team decided to switch from ShotGrid (now Flow Production Tracking) to Cerebro.

Speaking of the benefits of this transition, the cloud storage and flexibility offered by Cerebro immediately stand out. Each studio has its own unique pipeline for working on projects, so it’s crucial to customize the software according to specific tasks and programs. Additionally, we’ve developed our own plugins to enhance the functionality of professional tools. The switch in software has enabled us to effectively oversee all production stages across various projects. Typically, artists use only a small fraction of Cerebro features. The features and interface for supervisors and coordinators are also pretty straightforward.

Here’s how it works: a coordinator uses Cerebro to provide artists with all necessary materials for their shot assignments. Artists regularly submit daily progress reports, allowing us to effectively monitor production stages and identify any issues that arise. The status system allows coordinators to track real-time progress, indicating when a shot is in production or has been submitted for supervisor review.

To streamline our workflow, the studio has developed a plugin enabling seamless transfer of task-related information (such as shot names, tasks, and task durations) directly from our breakdown to Cerebro. This significantly reduces the need for manual data entry. Moreover, Cerebro’s adaptability enables it to integrate with virtually any program and customize a range of tools to suit our needs.

Klaxon Production: Facilitating remote collaboration with studios and vendors

Established in 2022, Klaxon Production is a young production company specializing in the creation and promotion of animated projects for children. Its primary YouTube channel boasts over 80 million views, and its animated series are broadcast on the Karusel and O! TV channels, as well as on Kinopoisk. Their latest project, Hunch and Crunch, explores the topic of responsible consumption, guided by the motto “Moderation!” Let’s take a closer look at the studio’s production processes.

At first, our team managed tasks using simple tools like email, Skype, and spreadsheets, suitable for handling basic assignments. However, as projects grew more complex, we realized that we needed a system capable of handling the growing volume of tasks and adapting to evolving work dynamics. We now had to go beyond our studio spaces, collaborate with remote vendors, and organize joint work with other studios. The first system we decided to try was Trello, but given that some of our artists possessed 15 years of experience with Cerebro, we opted to explore this familiar platform. This decision was reinforced when we collaborated with Aeroplan on the Flora’s Team project, where they also utilized Cerebro. Subsequently, we adopted Cerebro to manage the Hunch and Crunch project.

Today, Cerebro serves as our team’s primary tool for project management and task completion. It allows users to download materials and start working on them at any time and from any location. Team leads monitor project statuses while also managing costs and minimizing downtime. When assigning tasks, we take advantage of the flexible task settings, like relocating employees from one task to another.

One of the adjustments made by the team to tailor the system to our needs is customized task statuses, which you can see on the slide above. Some of our favorite features and tools include group status updates, Mirada, PDF comment export, task progress bar, task assignments, Tentaculo, and direct file download links.

Klaxon Production experts view Cerebro as an ideal solution for facilitating distributed and remote work without relying on large studio spaces. It enables employees to work from any location while still keeping in touch and fosters communication and creative collaborations.

Ivan Baryshnikov and the Volga team: Managing a creative project

Ivan Baryshnikov is an FX artist and director of his own short war film project Don, which is set in the alternate 1980s. With prior experience at Trehmer, CGF, and Premier Studios, he currently holds a position at Gaijin.

At first, Ivan worked on the Don project solo. However, more recently, he has formed the Volga team, comprising like-minded individuals from various domains of the movie industry. Together, they are collaborating on the short film while following all the principles of traditional cinematic storytelling.

“While working on various projects, I came across different types of task managers. When it came time to select software for my own creative project, some options, like YouTrack with its board system, seemed cumbersome, and there wasn’t sufficient time for extensive customization.

As a result, I opted to work on Don using Cerebro, a platform I was already familiar with from my previous places of employment. Although it may initially appear not very intuitive, it’s actually quite user-friendly for both supervisors and vendors, as I’ve learned through experience.

In my case, I customized My Space to align with the project’s tasks, ensuring that every artist, especially newcomers, could readily grasp the project’s progress.”

HSE Art and Design School: Utilizing a pipeline in the educational process

In 2023, the system was used by 121 students as well as teachers – experienced industry professionals. The students show a preference for the mobile and web versions, while their teachers tend to favor the desktop version.

We previously published a video interview with Aleksey Kukharonok, the head of the CGI and Visual Effects department at the HSE Art and Design School:

During the CG RAVE event, which the School helped organize, Aleksey discussed the latest developments in his field:

“When you have 70 students taking one course and 70 students taking another one, organizing the educational process becomes essential. Cerebro seemed like a fitting solution.

As the process manager, this allows me to “kill two birds with one stone.” Firstly, it allows teachers and myself to ensure that homework assignments are formulated correctly and that students have acknowledged, submitted, and completed the tasks. Secondly, it familiarizes students with the software they will encounter in their first professional studio after graduation.”

The students may not be overly enthusiastic about it, but they still make use of the tools we incorporate into the process.

All of our students have Cerebro accounts through which they receive assignments. Currently, our second, third, and fourth-year students are actively utilizing the system, with the fourth-year students particularly involved in extensive graduation projects. Within the tasks, students can view the materials they’ve uploaded, any comments provided by the teacher, as well as the status of the task, indicating whether it’s active or not.

In my opinion, this is very convenient. As project managers, teachers engage in extensive communication, and I have the ability to access any thread to assess task progress. Additionally, I can navigate to the forum, review comments, and reconstruct the project timeline. This approach allows us to emulate the studio work environment, enriching the learning experience.”

Import substitution is getting bigger nowadays. A large volume of projects means there needs to be control at all stages, making the task of choosing work management software a priority.

In this case study, production manager Elena Gurskaya and Film Direction coordinator Polina Bryzgalova talk about implementing Cerebro and how it has affected workflow convenience and efficiency.

Film Direction is one of the leading Russian studios creating visual effects for films and TV series. It provides a full range of services and is involved in all stages of production, from the development of concept arts, animatics, and filming supervision to post-production. The studio employs more than 50 people, and the team continues to grow.

Film Direction’s portfolio includes projects for more than 40 major films. In 2020, the studio received the Golden Eagle Award for best visual effects for the film Union of Salvation.

Before

A project management system is vital when tackling a large amount of materials and tasks. The number of projects in the active post-production phase, as well as in the filming and development stages, needs to be controlled, analyzed, and systematized so as not to plunge into chaos. A project management system helps to make work clear and transparent for everyone involved at every stage of interaction, which is very important given our workload.

The new choice

We previously used ShotGrid (ex-Shotgun) to manage projects. In 2023, we decided to switch to another software. Here are some of the reasons we chose Cerebro:

Russian software

Today, it’s more important than ever for organizations that the production software they use won’t suddenly stop working and offering support to customers in Russia. Being made in Russia, Cerebro gives us such confidence and reliability. We have no problems purchasing, paying for, or expanding the number of licenses. Plus, Cerebro offers optimal value for money, as well as nice discounts for clients.

Cloud storage and client-server installation

It’s very convenient for us that Cerebro provides cloud storage, which can be expanded as needed. This way we can avoid storing a lot of unnecessary information on our server. We know about the option to transfer data to the client’s server, which is equally important. Perhaps in the near future we’ll switch to this method of storage.

System flexibility to suit client needs

This is perhaps one of the key factors when choosing a task manager. Each studio uses its own unique pipeline to work on projects. Cerebro gives us the opportunity to customize the software for specific tasks and programs. Our software engineers set up connections between Cerebro and other programs we use in our work, as well as create their own plugins and tools. We also have a live chat with the support team where we can ask them questions. Cerebro experts are always there to help us both with trivial matters and with the code our developers write.

Intuitive interface

Our new software had to solve one very specific task — ensure stable control over all stages of production throughout all projects.

Your standard artist tends to have little functionality in Cerebro. They don’t need an extensive guide to understand project structure or how to publish a report and update status. For supervisors and coordinators, the functionality is also generally clear, with not too many hidden options and buttons. As a rule, everything is available. And if we’re having trouble understanding something, the support team is always there to help us.

How processes are organized in Cerebro

We’ve known about Cerebro for quite a while. Many of our colleagues had already used it, and working on joint projects allowed us to weigh all the pros and cons.

We fully set up our production process and started using the system in 2023.

The Cerebro team helped us make sure the implementation and onboarding went smoothly. During the transition, while developing tools and a user-friendly workstyle, we had to alter the Tentaculo code to suit our own needs.

Cerebro helps us in our daily routine. First of all, it enables us to structure all project data and organize tasks.

The workflow is structured as follows: using Cerebro, the coordinator sends the artist all the materials they may need to work on the shot. All the artists also post daily progress reports, allowing us to track production stages on the fly and identify any pressing issues. The system of statuses also allows our coordinators to efficiently track work progress (when a shot is taken into production or has already been sent for review to a supervisor).

Some of our favorite and frequently used Cerebro tools include:

• task statuses
• sending and receiving comments in Mirada; exporting comments
• comparing provisional results in Mirada
• attaching internal links to files and directly downloading files
• assigning tasks
• tracking work activity on projects throughout the day

We also occasionally grant access to Cerebro to our clients. This is a useful feature if you want to avoid lots of messages in chats and want to manage the entire project in a single system, without any unnecessary discussions in instant messengers.

In addition to licenses for permanent employees, we use a convenient freelance package that allows us to invite third-party contractors to our projects.

We have a handy plugin we use to transfer all task data (shot name, shot tasks, task duration, etc.) directly from our breakdown to Cerebro, eliminating a large amount of manual work.

Furthermore, all additional information (about lenses, resolution, etc.) is also displayed in the system for artists’ convenience. We also actively utilize hashtags.

Cerebro’s flexibility allows us to connect it to all of our software and configure various tools. For example, we can create a folder structure on the server directly from the system. Our specialists have also created checker plugins we use in Cerebro to check the correctness of project data. All of this is possible thanks to numerous events that allow you to customize Cerebro.

Results

Summing up the results of our collaboration and fruitful work with Cerebro, we’d like to note that the entire team reports in the system, and we track progress and deadlines, manage workload, and do much more in a single environment. This was our main goal when choosing new software, and we continue to maintain order in our creative work process.

Over the course of a year, the team has fully learned how to use Cerebro in a way that suits our needs. Thanks to the user-friendly interface and tools, even the employees who had not previously worked with such systems have had no problems adapting and further complying with the processes.

Cerebro has been on the market for many years, and more and more of our colleagues are joining the product. Of course, this is a huge plus and convenience when working on joint projects.

Web version: Notification feed

The web version now has a full-fledged notification feed about changes to your projects.

You can track new messages, status changes, and task properties in chronological order.

You can customize the updates you are interested in from the Notification Settings Window.

As a reminder, notifications only come for tasks for which you are subscribed.

In the New Plan tool, we added the option to add user groups at once.

Now there is also an option to display additional task properties, tags, checklists, connections, and other task parameters in the table.

For the task path variable

$(url[i])

we added the option to set a range of names from the path

$(url[i:j])

where i and j are the starting and ending index in the path.

For example, the task path is

/project/assets/cat/model

We want to get the path from

assets/cat

To do this, we set the variable

$(url[1:2])

The syntax for setting a range is the same as for a list in Python.

See the documentation for more details.

— Wiki
— Web Mirada — commenting on videos and pictures in the web version
— Inherited tags

Happy New Year, everyone! We wish you success and prosperity in 2024 

New Plan

We’ve introduced a new Plan (New) tool for viewing and planning tasks by executors.

We haven’t removed the old Plan tools because not all features are implemented in the new one. They will be added soon, but for now, we’re eagerly awaiting feedback to help us make the tool even more convenient and useful.

You can open the tab from the Main Menu → View → Plan (New).

The structure of the Plan is similar to My Space: you can create different pages and save them for your colleagues.

To build a Plan, select the projects and users for whom you want to display tasks.

In the page settings, you can group tasks by projects or users, or both parameters simultaneously.

The page will display tasks of users in the selected projects for the current time period.

When grouped by users, we can see their overall workload.

At the bottom is the navigation panel where you can choose the time period.

When set to ‘Today,’ the period is always set from the beginning of the current week.

We’ve added a setting for the order of comments when exporting PDFs for video files. You can choose the order by number or by frame.

Custom user properties

You can now add additional user properties.

What can be a user property:

• text
• whole numbers and fractional numbers
• date

You can add and fill out properties in the Administrator window on the Users tab.

Each property can have flexible access settings — from visible to all users of the company to hidden from everyone (except for administrators with proper rights).

Users can fill out properties available to everyone in their profile on their own.

Now you can set a specific image for a task, which will not change while working on the task.

Thumbnail can be installed at any level of the project tree.

You can do this either in the properties by adding a picture,

or from the shortcut file menu — set a fixed thumbnail for the file uploaded to the task (pictures or videos).

Other updates

Find a template

In the New task from template window, we added a button leading to the original task of an existing template.

Go to task

You can now double-click the task properties panel to go to tasks, links and references.

Tentaculo

Filters

We have added a file filter in Tentaculo.

If needed, any file type from the task can be displayed in the directory.

3DEqualizer

We have added Tentaculo to 3DEqualizer. Version 5+ is supported.

More about Tentaculo

New web viewer

The web version has updated the image and video viewer.

Zoom and pan functions are now available. Our next step to update is the option to leave comments (Wow!)

Trend VFX is a leading visual effects studio that creates credits for movies, TV shows, and ads and is known for its work in Egypt and the Middle East.

The company employs 110 people, with many projects spanning over 50 shots and several months. These factors, along with the studio’s goals of maintaining a strong presence and strengthening its positions in the domestic market and becoming one of the best studios in the world, have led to the implementation of a resource management system.

Client history

Trend VFX offers a wide range of services, from concept art and modeling to animation and compositing. These projects bring dreams to life, including through high-quality visual effects.

The studio was founded in 2017 by a group of experienced VFX artists who saw the potential of the Egyptian market and decided to invest in employee training and start working under a new brand.

Trend VFX has worked on more than 60 credits for international and local projects in various genres, including action, drama, comedy, and horror. The studio’s work has been seen by people all over the world and is especially popular in Egypt and the Middle East.

Striving for efficiency

A project management system is a valuable tool for any VFX studio that wants to improve its efficiency, profitability, and client loyalty. As the number and complexity of projects grew, Trend VFX decided to pick and implement such a system.

Before starting the search, the company set a number of goals:

1. Tracking progress. The company wanted to be able to track the progress of each shot and the project as a whole in real time. This would allow them to identify potential delays or problems and take action to resolve them.
2. Resource management. Effectively managing the team’s time and resources means making sure that employees are working on the right tasks and that the company is not wasting money.
3. Improving efficiency. The key here is to optimize workflow to simultaneously increase efficiency and save time and money.
4. Making the right decisions. By tracking progress online, the team can better allocate resources and set priorities. This makes it possible to make more informed decisions regarding projects.

Trend VFX decided to try out several systems, determining as a result that they needed something flexible in terms of configuration and integration capabilities. So the company settled on Cerebro. Among some of Cerebro’s key advantages, Trend VFX names ease of use, convenient integration into the work process, and an affordable price.

Experience using Cerebro

VFX producer Muhammad Tantawi told us more about implementing the system:

“We started using Cerebro four years ago. At the time, we were working on a complex project with more than 50 shots that took months of work. We were struggling to track progress and manage resources. We knew that we needed a project management system, but we weren’t sure which one to choose.

After trying a number of systems, we decided to test Cerebro and were immediately impressed. The system was easy to use and had a wide range of features that we needed. We were able to track progress in real time, manage resources effectively, and communicate with clients seamlessly.

The implementation and onboarding process for Cerebro was very smooth. We started by having a session with the Cerebro team to introduce the application and its features. We also discussed our specific needs and how Cerebro could help us meet them. The Cerebro tech team then set up the system on our servers. This process was quick and easy, and the Cerebro team was very helpful and responsive.”

Once the system was up and running, the team began training its employees. The process was easy, as the staff found the software intuitive and easy to use.

Cerebro pros and cons

Trend VFX chose Cerebro for a number of advantages:

Flexibility

Cerebro is a flexible project management system that can be customized to meet the specific needs of any VFX studio.

User-friendly interface

The program has a user-friendly interface that both beginners and experienced professionals will find easy to master.

Installation on the customer’s server

Cerebro is available as an on-premise solution: you can host the system on your own servers, which gives you more control over your data and security.

Affordable price

Cerebro is a great choice for VFX studios on a budget.

To ensure that the team could work comfortably, we customized the system to suit the studio’s needs.

Here are the tools and features that Trend VFX liked the most:

Task management

Cerebro’s task management features are very powerful and flexible. You can create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track progress.

Communication

Cerebro has a built-in communication system that makes it easy to collaborate with team members. You can send messages, share files, and comment on tasks.

Customization

Cerebro is highly customizable, so you can tailor it to your specific needs. You can create custom workflows, templates, and fields.

As for ideas on how to improve Cerebro, the team says the system’s API could be enhanced to make it easier to integrate with other systems, and reporting features could be improved to make it easier to generate custom reports.

Comfortable growth

Over the past year, Trend VFX produced 20,000 shots. This is much more than before they started using Cerebro. While using the software, the company not only improved its productivity and, accordingly, profits, but also got a clear picture of its projects, processes, and advantages, and identified areas that could be improved.

Aside from business results, it was important for Trend VFX management to make teamwork comfortable and enjoyable, so that each employee could see the results of their work and be invested in the result. It was important to keep the customers happy and informed about all the stages of work on a project. With the introduction of a project management system, the studio managed to get closer to its goals and keeps moving in the right direction.

Tentaculo

Sony Vegas Pro

Added Sony Vegas Pro to Tentaculo. Supports versions 20+.

Added Toon Boom Storyboard Pro to Tentaculo. Supports versions 20+.

More details about Tentaculo

Cerebro Beta Qt6

In this update, two desktop versions of Cerebro are available at once — standard and beta.

The beta is built using the new version of Qt6.

Mirada uses in-house rendering systems for each operating system:

MacOs — Metal
Windows — DirectX
Linux — OpenGL

This allows us to use system-dependent functions more flexibly. For example, all color correction tools now work under MacOs.

Beta Limitations

Due to the use of newer libraries and technologies, requirements for minimum versions of operating systems are imposed:

MacOs Big Sur (11) +
Windows 10 +
Linux –
glibc 2.28 +
CXXABI 1.3.11 +
For reference Debian 10+, Ubuntu 20.04+

The beta version already uses PyQt6, so if you use plugins, they should be translated to the qtpy module we supply.

from qtpy.QtGui import *

Visual update of the web version

Moved to a newer MUI, fixed some tools, made them more convenient and obvious.

Implemented a more stable text editor, without unpleasant artifacts in the formatting process.

Other updates

Cerebro Desktop

Added the ability to display tasks without status on the board.

Mirada

We are launching a new video format — interviews with Cerebro clients, in which they demonstrate real life cases of using a project management system.

Our first guest was Aleksey Kukharonok, Head of CGI and Visual Effects at the HSE Art and Design School.

The topic of our discussion was higher education in the field of computer graphics and animation, with the HSE Art and Design School being an example. We learned what the modern way of becoming a professional artist looks like and how Cerebro helps students in their studies, project work, and in organizing educational and professional activities.

Watch full video on our channel:

Tentaculo

Adobe Substance Painter

Added Tentaculo to Adobe Substance Painter. Now you can take tasks to work and upload materials to Cerebro without leaving your work environment.

Added the ability to connect Tentaculo to only the software you need, not all supported software at once.

Read more about Tentaculo

Mirada: playback libraries, alpha channel

Updated Mirada’s root video playback libraries to support new decoders.

Playing a ZIP file sequence

Mirada can now play sequences from ZIP file archives. Drawings and comments can also be added to such sequences.

Note:
The archive directory structure can be random, but all files must be sequence frames.
All sequence frames must be stored in the same directory in the archive.

Alpha Channel

Added the ability to view the alpha channel separately along with the color channels.

Discord, Telegram

Referral program

PyQt. Reminder for developers

This release is the last one before moving to Qt6. For all developers who write or use Python plugins for Cerebro, we strongly recommend to make sure that the imports of PyQt modules used are brought to view:

9 Pandas is an advertising agency that specializes in ads, SMM, and video shooting. The team is actively growing, and so is the number of tasks. The CG department is expanding and turning into a “machine” that’s becoming difficult to manage. More employees meant the company had to streamline its production processes.

The team set out to find a tracker tailored to graphics. That’s how 9 Pandas found Cerebro and chose our product for managing projects.

Client history

The team has its own CG department, so they looked for a project management system that would cater to their tasks and needs.

“The Mirada video player was what really won us over — I’ve never seen anything better. Plus, we wanted to move all our business correspondence from messengers to a tasker. When you discuss all your projects at once in a messenger, information tends to get lost and mixed up. Several people working on a project means numerous chats spawning and taking up space. We wanted to solve all those issues,” says CG expert Alexey Smirnov.

9 Pandas needed to streamline project management

The growing CG department required an easier way to manage projects. Aside from the increased number of employees, they also had a large flow of projects and tasks to handle. It was abundantly clear the team needed to streamline its work processes.

The team chose Cerebro on the advice of friends from the industry. “We watched the tutorials on the website and realized Cerebro covered all our needs. We especially loved Mirada. We tried using Trello before to track tasks, but it didn’t really fit our production needs or work that well for us, so we didn’t consider anything else — only Cerebro,” says 9 Pandas.

Introducing Cerebro and onboarding employees

Alexey Smirnov has talked in detail about 9 Pandas‘ experience using Cerebro.

Today, all CG department specialists manage projects in Cerebro. We intend to introduce it in other departments too. In the future, we plan to use freelance licenses to work with freelancers and assign projects to them in Cerebro itself, without relying too much on instant messengers or phone calls.

It has been two months since we started using Cerebro. During that time, we realized that efficient work is impossible without effort. We had to practice strict discipline to automate work processes and help our colleagues acquire new habits.

We took advantage of the video tutorials to quickly get started with Cerebro. Some of the old habits die hard, however — for example, the need to stop using instant messengers. We also created separate tasks for each task from the pool. It took a lot of effort to make those actions a habit.

At first, we had to remind our employees to upload dailies and change task statuses. Sometimes we did that right during work. “Change the task status!” “Check the changes in Cerebro!” All in all, the onboarding is still in progress. There are processes that don’t need adding to the system, and there are those that really need to be controlled. We’re currently working on adding employees from other departments to Cerebro, because without them, it’s not as efficient. Either everyone uses the same system, or it will be a mess.

Then there’s the question of how we manage projects. Cerebro offers hints and templates, but they don’t cover everything. It’s a tool one needs to know how to use effectively. Ideally, you need to make the effort and configure it. But the supervisors and producers don’t always have time for that, so we use ready-made solutions. It’s very likely we’re not taking full advantage of Cerebro’s potential.

The interface is a bit too complicated for us. It feels as if you wanted to include as many tools as you could. I would have personally liked to adapt the Tasks window to my needs. We also haven’t been able to properly connect Cerebro to our local network, but this is largely due to our corporate security limitations.

Cerebro helps to save time

9 Pandas finds that Cerebro has the following advantages:

• Orderly tasks and projects
• The convenient option to make changes in Mirada, which saves time
• You can see who is working on what
• All project materials are in one place
• Easy to communicate with remote workers

“For us, the main advantage is the built-in Mirada player. It has a commenting feature that lacks only the option to add reference pictures in addition to arrows and squares. It’s good that everyone can see current tasks. It’s very convenient. You always know who is doing what and when.

Another thing we love are task-specific chats. We’re trying to master planning, but so far it has proven difficult,” 9 Pandas says.

Result

By using Cerebro, 9 Pandas has been able to:

• reduce costs
• increase efficiency
• increase the number of projects released using the system
• increase the number of employees working in the system

The team sums up:

“We think using a tracker and gauging its long-term efficiency is a long story. It requires getting used to and developing new habits. As soon as that happens, there’ll be profit.”

Design studio Sinners sought to implement structure and visualize creative designs. The team wanted to organize technical processes and control production tasks in one single tool. We asked Sergey Zavoloko, the co-founder of the studio, how Cerebro helped reach these goals and restore order in the workspace.

About the client

Sinners is a multidisciplinary design studio. Together with next-generation brands and advertising agencies, they create modern communication design for advertising campaigns, key visuals, and animated OLV ads. To stay productive, handle the flow of diverse tasks, and release content on time, the company began looking for new ways to organize workflow.

Over the past five years, Sinners has opened offices in four countries: Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Its extensive client list includes League of Legends, Samsung, BAT, Vogue, PepsiCo, Yandex, and BBDO. The team has participated in festivals and won prizes and awards at BBF Gold and Silver, Ad Black Sea Festival Shortlist, and Tagline Awards 3 Gold.

The company had previously used TargetHunter and Trello to organize workflow, but as it grew larger, the teams started thinking about switching to a more functional system.

“We believe that commercial design projects can influence trends, culture, and the industry as a whole, so our task is to create industry hits and catchy content. The key reasons why clients choose us are trendspotting and hit-making, 100% match with the target audience, and multidisciplinarity,” says Sergey Zavoloko, co-founder of Sinners.

Project management tasks in post-production

Behind the large volume of creative projects hides a routine in the form of technical workflow management and attempts to centralize all processes, including the storage of files and documentation.

We have decided to learn more about how Sinners approach these tasks:

“Any creative team needs order, structure, and visual clarity, which a single service could not give us. Cerebro feels the most functional: we use it both to make small key visuals and adaptations and create large animated videos. It is also a local product, meaning it won’t suddenly deny our teams access.”

Before switching to Cerebro, the company ran into the following difficulties: endless loss of files and source materials and lots of different tools for storing, aggregating, exporting, and transferring comments.

To make the interaction between employees efficient and track post-production stages, the company set out to create conditions for transparency, consistency, and centralization of all processes and files within projects with the help of special software.

Cerebro user experience

The team got its first taste of Cerebro during a project for ARGUNOV studio. At first, the interface seemed massive and intimidating, because people from the studio had hundreds of active tasks. Now the workspace is configured to Sinners‘ needs, and the interface looks both nice and functional.

During software implementation, the team received manuals and training videos, as well as support from our experts.

“Cerebro has an intuitive design and fully meets our needs. It was created by techies for techies, and its interface resembles production program tools.” The latter became another advantage for the Sinners team, who are used to working with specialized content development software.

Quiz

Our favorite Cerebro tools…

We love the main task visualization page. It’s very clear and coherent. The icing on the cake is Mirada. We finally don’t need to make a bunch of presentations with comments. Instead, we can do everything right in the service and send it to the team for revision.

The team members using the product are…

Technical director, art director, technical supervisors, technical team, and artists.

Three benefits of using the product…

Transparency, consistency, and process centralization.

Conclusion

At first it was scary and confusing. What is this button? And that one? Help! Sos… But given all the support we get from the Cerebro team, we definitely won’t get lost now. We plan to make a KPI review after six months of using the product.

In the meantime, after the first stage of using our product, the Sinners team has noticed the following changes:

• cost reduction
• improved work efficiency
• more projects released with Cerebro’s help
• more employees now use Cerebro