Outsourcing VFX work can add capacity, extend your working day across time zones and keep costs predictable. It can also cost you a week of rework if the vendor turns out to be the wrong fit. The difference is usually visible before the first shot is sent — if you ask the right questions.
The fifteen questions below are grouped into five areas: quality and evidence, process and communication, security, commercials, and scale and reliability. For each one we explain why it matters and what a good answer sounds like. At the end you’ll find the red flags to watch for and a checklist you can use to score vendors.
Before you ask: know what you need
A vendor’s answers are only useful if you can judge them against your own project. Before you contact anyone, it helps to pin down a few things:
- The work involved: which disciplines are needed — roto, paint and cleanup, keying, matchmove, compositing — and roughly how many shots and frames.
- The hardest shots: pick two or three representative difficult shots. They tell you more about a vendor than an average one.
- Your delivery spec: formats, colour space, naming and how work will be reviewed.
- Your security obligations: anything the studio, network or distributor requires of sub-vendors.
- Your schedule: when turnover happens, when temps and finals are due, and how much the edit is still likely to change.
With these in hand, you can ask the same questions of every vendor and compare the answers fairly.
Quality and evidence
1. Can you show a reel with breakdowns of work similar to ours?
Why it matters: a finished shot shows only the result. A breakdown — the original plate next to the matte, clean plate or final comp — shows what the vendor actually did. Without it, you can’t tell their contribution from another facility’s.
A good answer: breakdowns organised by discipline, with examples close to your shots (hair-heavy roto, moving-camera cleanup, difficult green screen), and an honest description of which parts of each shot they handled.
2. Can we start with a test shot?
Why it matters: nothing shows how a vendor handles your footage, your notes and your delivery spec like doing the work. A test also shows you how they communicate before anything is at stake.
A good answer: a clear position on whether tests are paid or unpaid, an agreed scope and deadline for the test, and the same delivery spec and review process you would use on the real project. Be wary of tests that are judged on a different spec from production.
3. Who have you worked with, and can we speak to a reference?
Why it matters: credits and logos are easy to display and hard to verify. A conversation with a producer or supervisor who has worked with the vendor tells you how they behave under deadline pressure.
A good answer: a willingness to put you in touch with a past client where confidentiality allows, and clarity about what they contributed to any project they name. Many vendors work under NDA and can’t name every client — that is normal, but they should be able to say so plainly.
Process and communication
4. How do you scope and plan a project before work starts?
Why it matters: most problems in outsourced VFX start with a misunderstanding about what was asked for. A vendor that reviews footage before quoting will catch difficult shots early.
A good answer: a defined intake step — reviewing plates, frame ranges, references and delivery specs — followed by a written plan or bid per shot, with questions raised before production starts rather than after.
5. Who is our day-to-day contact, and when are they available?
Why it matters: a single, responsive point of contact saves hours. Time-zone overlap determines whether notes are answered the same day or the next.
A good answer: a named coordinator or supervisor, stated working hours, an agreed overlap window with your team and a clear route for urgent issues. A vendor in a different time zone can be an advantage if the hand-off is planned: work progresses while your team is offline.
6. How are reviews, notes and versions handled?
Why it matters: unclear versioning leads to the wrong shot being approved or notes being applied to an old version.
A good answer: numbered versions, review media with burn-ins (shot ID, version, frame numbers), a shared place for notes and confirmation that each note was addressed in the next version.
7. What quality control happens before we see a shot?
Why it matters: your supervisor’s time is expensive. Internal QC should catch technical problems — wrong frame range, chattering edges, missing grain — before they reach you.
A good answer: a described QC stage with specific checks for each discipline, carried out by someone other than the artist, and technical checks on naming, format and colour space as well as the image itself.
Security
8. How do you protect our footage?
Why it matters: unreleased footage is valuable and contractually protected. A leak can harm your relationship with the studio or distributor.
A good answer: NDAs as standard, access limited to the people working on the project, a clear description of where footage is stored and who can reach it, and a policy that client material is never used in reels or marketing without written permission.
9. How are files transferred, stored and deleted?
Why it matters: many leaks happen in transit or long after a project ends.
A good answer: named transfer methods (or a willingness to use yours), a stated retention period after delivery and a defined deletion process you can request confirmation of.
10. Can you meet our studio’s security requirements?
Why it matters: some productions require vendors to complete a security questionnaire or hold a specific assessment, such as a Trusted Partner Network (TPN) assessment.
A good answer: an honest statement of what the vendor has and hasn’t completed, a willingness to answer your questionnaire in writing, and no vague claims of “studio-grade security” without detail.
Commercials
11. How do you price work?
Why it matters: per-frame, per-shot and per-day pricing each suit different projects, and quotes from different vendors are only comparable if you know the basis.
A good answer: a clear pricing model, a per-shot breakdown that reflects complexity, and the assumptions behind the quote written down. Our guide to VFX outsourcing pricing explains the models in more detail.
12. How many revisions are included, and what counts as a revision?
Why it matters: disputes rarely concern the price; they concern what the price covered.
A good answer: a stated number of review rounds, a clear difference between fixing the vendor’s errors (always included) and changes to the brief (quoted separately), and a process for agreeing extra work before it starts.
13. What are your payment terms?
Why it matters: terms affect your cash flow and show how the vendor manages risk.
A good answer: written terms agreed before work starts, milestone or delivery-based invoicing on larger projects, and invoices that reference shot IDs so they can be checked against what was delivered.
Scale and reliability
14. How do you handle volume and schedule changes?
Why it matters: shot counts grow, edits change and deadlines move. You need to know what happens when they do.
A good answer: a realistic view of capacity, early warning if a new deadline can’t be met, and a process for adding or removing shots without restarting the whole bid.
15. What happens if a shot is late or fails review?
Why it matters: every vendor delivers good work when things go to plan. How they respond when they don’t is what you’re really buying.
A good answer: proactive communication before a deadline is missed rather than after, fixes for the vendor’s own errors at no extra cost, and a supervisor who takes responsibility for the shot.
Red flags to watch for
- A reel of finished shots with no breakdowns, or breakdowns that don’t say what the vendor contributed.
- A quote returned without anyone looking at the footage.
- Unlimited revisions promised up front — this usually means the scope hasn’t been understood.
- No named contact, or a contact who can’t answer technical questions.
- Vague answers about where footage is stored and who can access it.
- Security certifications or client credits claimed without detail.
- Prices far below other quotes with no explanation of the difference.
- Pressure to commit to a large volume before a test or a first batch.
Scoring checklist
Use this checklist to compare vendors side by side. Score each item 0 (no), 1 (partly) or 2 (yes), and weight the sections that matter most for your project.
- Reel with breakdowns relevant to our shots
- Test shot or first batch agreed on the production spec
- Reference available, or a clear explanation of NDA limits
- Footage reviewed before the quote
- Named day-to-day contact with agreed overlap hours
- Clear versioning and review process
- Described internal QC stage
- NDA in place and access limited to the project team
- Transfer, retention and deletion policy in writing
- Willing to complete our security questionnaire
- Pricing model and assumptions written down
- Revisions and change requests clearly defined
- Payment terms agreed in writing
- Realistic answer on capacity and schedule changes
- Clear process for late or rejected shots
How RotoEdge answers these
We think a vendor should be able to answer these questions plainly, so here is where we stand.
- Evidence: before-and-after breakdowns of roto, paint and keying work are on our work page. Ask us about a test shot for your project.
- Process: every project follows the same five-stage process — discovery and planning, shot preparation, production, quality assurance and final delivery — with quality control before anything leaves the studio.
- Communication: we are a women-led studio based in India, working in IST (UTC+5:30). Tell us your time zone and we’ll agree review times that suit your team.
- Security: we work under NDAs, with secure workflows and controlled access to client footage. Our security page sets out what we do and what you can ask us for.
- Technology: we use AI-assisted tools to support our artists, with creative decisions, quality control and approvals kept human-led.
- Commercials: we scope each project from the footage before quoting. Send your shots and frame ranges for a quote.
If you are evaluating vendors for an upcoming project, get in touch and we’ll answer any of these questions in writing.