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Legend3D

American stereoscopic animation studio and multimedia company

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
5 min read
Source updated June 16, 2026

Legend 3D was an American stereoscopic conversion studio and multimedia company.

Founded in 2001, the company produced 3D conversion and visual effects work. In November 2016, Legend 3D moved into its facility on the Columbia Square campus in Hollywood, CA. In October 2017, the company announced it was expanding its presence with a new facility in Pune, India. In February 2018, Toronto Star reported that the Toronto division of Legend3D has downsized its work force to about 100 employees. The government had previously announced that it will allocate provincial government fund for $3.1 million to the L.A firm to create 271 new jobs while retaining 280 positions in its Toronto office. When the government announced the funds for Legend, the company also pledged to invest $27 million in the Toronto office. The Ontario government says its officials are now “working with Legend 3D to confirm that they are following the terms of our contract."

As of March 2019, The Toronto office has been silently shuttered and staff have been laid off after finding more cost effective labour in India. The executive team has also been replaced once again.

As of December 2021, Legend has filed for bankruptcy.

01Company history

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., founded Legend Films in 2001, originally as a colorization studio, building on the patents from American Film Technologies where he served as CTO from 1986-1991. In 1985, Barry left his position as staff neuroscientist at Harvard and Mass General Hospital and pioneered the first all-digital technology and process for colorizing black and white films. The company produced colorized product for Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Turner, Paramount, Sony, Japan's Tsuburaya, BBC and several other major global media and distribution companies. In 2010, following the release of Alice in Wonderland, he changed the name of Legend Films to Legend 3D, and colorization took on a low priority in order for the company to focus entirely on the stereoscopic conversion of feature films and commercials.

The stereoscopic conversion industry went through a Wild West of development with each of the 3 big conversion studios developing their own proprietary software to get through the incredible amount of content delivered in the peak of 3D. Legend was known for having incredibly high quality and low margins due to sales executives underbidding each other between the competing studios. Legend was known for doing a lot of work with Disney and Sony, while their main rival StereoD, was known for capturing all market around Universal, Legendary Pictures, Marvel, and ILM. In late 2014, the company expanded to create two additional lines of business: Legend VFX, providing visual effects, and Legend VR, offering pre- and post-production services for the creation of virtual reality experiences. Late 2014 is when a temporary studio was built up out of the Sheridan College's rentable conferences room ON, Canada. This led to the downsizing of the Carlsbad branch. This temporary location was strategically placed to recruit college students. This along with many other reasons caused key executives at the studio to depart the studio due to disagreements with investors over where the industry should go.

In September 2017, the company opened a facility in Pune, India. In December 2017, the company opened another facility in Luoyang, China, which hosts over 100 members.

In December 2021, Legend3D holdings has closed all locations and filled for bankruptcy.

02Visual Effects Services

Legend's teams in Asia Pacific allow for plate preparation & augmentation. The RPM department's work allows for streaming episodics and feature films.

03Downsizing and closing of Toronto Facility

In February 2018, Toronto Star reported that the Toronto division of Legend3D has downsized its work force to about 100 employees. The liberal government had previously announced that it will allocate provincial government fund for $3.1 million to the L.A firm to create 271 new jobs while retaining 280 positions in its Toronto office. When the government announced the funds for Legend, the company also pledged to invest $27 million in the Toronto office. The Ontario government says its officials are now “working with Legend 3D to confirm that they are following the terms of our contract."

The terms of the contract were never fulfilled and the office was closed March 2019.

04Notable releases

Films converted to 3D

Commercials

In 2008, Legend converted a commercial for Skittles candy for the M&M/Mars Company

Special events

Legend performed 3D conversion of large-screen video material for the This Is It concerts.

Watch videos about Legend3DExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Legend3D”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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