Company’s fourth location envisions staffing business with up to 600 artists for 3D conversion and VFX services.
Legend 3D VP Will Maurer and Luoyang City Vice Mayor Wei Xianfeng commemorate the creation of Legend China during a ceremony at the Luoyang National University Science Park complex.
LOS ANGELES -- Legend 3D has finalized terms for expansion into China, establishing a new operation to offer services in support of 3D conversion and VFX projects in Luoyang City -- the heart of China’s rapidly growing entertainment technology sector -- in the province of Henan.
Target opening date of its newest facility is spring.
Legend VP Will Maurer has been guiding the development of this opportunity for most of the past year. The result of those efforts is an exclusive relationship with multiple partners including multiple municipal entities in both Luoyang City and Henan Province. When operations begin at the new facility, Legend will be able to provide 3D conversion services for films produced both domestically and internationally.
An elaborate ceremony was hosted by local and regional Chinese authorities held Dec. 11 on the site where Legend China will open its new 60,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in 90-acre Luoyang National University Science Park, a sprawling modern business environment offering state-of-the-art services to evolving and established companies. Plans call for the new operation to employ up to 600 experienced roto and paint artists, as well to partner with local universities to both provide training and job placement services to artists in the region.
With the company’s Pune, India, site, which opened in October, now fully operational, its Luoyang facility coming on line in four months, and its Toronto and Los Angeles studios up and running at optimal output, Legend’s clients will benefit from an expanded workforce, increased capacity and the seamless integration of the company’s global talent base.
With 98 percent of screens across all movie theaters in China are equipped to show films in 3D, the largest such concentration in the world, one of the factors which motivated Legend to build a presence on the mainland was the opportunity to take a leadership role in elevating the quality of the 3D standard of films exhibiting in Chinese theaters.
As part of Legend’s government and agency partnerships, there has been a mutual commitment to create a method for ensuring moviegoers in the region are aware of the quality of the content before paying a premium ticket price to see the movie in 3D.
To ensure the privacy of client IP, Legend is replicating the same Tier 1 digital security standard in Luoyang which it has established in all of its other locations, and will be interconnecting all four facilities to provide a secure and efficient global workflow to the protocols required by the major motion picture studios.
Source: Legend 3D
Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.
