Sean Copley of Timbuktoons, an animation and design studio, on how his team uses Basecamp and Highrise:
Who We Are
Timbuktoons is an animation and design studio in Augusta, GA that specializes in 2D animation, motion graphics and illustration services from concept to delivery for both the commercial and non-profits industries. We are currently developing our own animated children’s shows for broadcast.
How We Use Basecamp
We’re a small company that thinks big and prides itself on being nimble and efficient. Often we have many projects at different stages in our pipeline at the same time. From the beginning we knew we needed a flexible project management system and CRM that could scale up or down easily depending on the number of employees and workload.
Basecamp has helped us streamline our animation production pipeline whether working with in-house employees our off-site contractors. With Project and To-do templates we can quickly start tracking time based on the different roles of our pipeline (visual development, sketching, storyboards, animatics, ink and paint, scene production, etc.). This has been critical for us to predict realistic goals for turnaround times and budget.
At just a glance I can get a sense of how the project is progressing and where we are on time and budget. When a job is completed we use the time data collected to accurately give estimates on new jobs…it’s great to have real world stats instead of just bidding in the dark!
How We Use Highrise
Highrise has been a great CRM for keeping track of our clients and executives in the world of animation. Childrens’ animation is a fast paced industry but often slow in communication, so knowing who from our company has had contact with someone and what was said helps us stay on top of things without bugging. Plus not having to use folders to archive emails (only to never find them again) is worth the price alone!
We Are 37signals Fanboys!
We've loved the collection of 37signals tools so much that we use them in our personal lives too. I use Backpack for keeping track of my home life and work I do for a non-profit. Wherever we go, we tell people about how we use your products just to see their eyes light up when they see a solution for their own workflow issues.
Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.
