Rutvij Barot Announced as Outpost VFX Head of Creative Operations in India

Over the course of a 20-year career in VFX, Rutvij has been an integral part of teams delivering marquee productions for studios including Disney and Universal Pictures. In recent years, as Head of Creative Operations, he has led vast teams in India across all VFX disciplines.

We sat down with Rutvij to uncover more about his career to date, his role within the global Outpost VFX team and more!

Can you tell us a bit more about your career so far?

I have spent around 20 years in the VFX industry, and have worked on projects for Disney, Universal Pictures and many other Hollywood studios throughout my career. 

I started my journey as an Assistant Editor for films and moved into the CG/VFX world as a junior hair simulation artist. Over the years I gradually progressed into a management role by working up the ladder in departments including CFX, Layout, Animation, MMRA, Pre-viz and Pre-production​.

My first management role was for a Singapore-based company – I was in Singapore working in an animation studio for over four years, after which I came back to India and helped that company build a studio in Chennai.

I took a small sabbatical and wrote a short film, 'Metasis', and later produced and directed it in 2016. I’m pleased to say this film won 20 international awards in Sci-fi & VFX categories.

I then joined MPC as Head of Department for MMRA and eventually was promoted to Head of Creative Operations where I oversaw end-to-end shows with teams in Mumbai and Bangalore.

In 2021 I was part of the Unreal Fellowship program, following which I built and lead a pre-viz and real-time team. We participated in Epic’s Unreal short film ​competition in India alongside an indie filmmaker and won first prize in the competition.

After almost 4 years with MPC and Technicolor, I am now with Outpost VFX and excited for my next chapter.

What attracted you to Outpost VFX initially?

When I saw Foundation I was blown away by the VFX for that show, and then I found out a lot of that work was done by Outpost VFX. However, what attracted me the most were the people and the culture that I had heard about from my friends in the industry.

Your role must be quite wide-ranging! Can you explain a bit about what you’ll be overseeing as Head of Creative Operations?

I feel my role falls in two large buckets. The first one is ‘inward looking’, which is to oversee the creative team here in India and help them with their creative or technical challenges. It includes people development, workflow and technical enhancements.

The second is ‘outward looking’, where I will be liaising with our sites across the globe. These sites are client facing, so I will partner with them to support them in delivering shows with the help of the Indian team.

I believe that the higher you go up the ladder your role transforms into one which serves everyone.

As well as working with the local Indian team, are you looking forward to working with the wider Outpost team globally? How important is strong collaboration between all the studios?

Yes, it is extremely important as our global sites are facing clients. I believe that our Indian artist pool is very talented and dedicated. We bring our own strengths to the table and have huge amounts of potential. There is need for us to be equal partners with our global sites and collaborate with them to build trust across our client base.

Have you worked with many of the existing Outpost VFX team before now?

Surprisingly, yes! It already feels like home here. I know a lot of them and have worked alongside many.

What excites you most about joining Outpost?

I have been in roles that have allowed me to seed cultures in studios. I am thrilled to blend this culture-building value of mine with the very refreshing vibe that I already see in Outpost. I look forward to working with the wonderful team and joining them on their journey.