James Cameron's Lightstorm Vision buys 3D studio Outsyders

Lightstorm Vision, the 3D production technology company founded by James Cameron, has acquired Outsyders, the AI-driven stereoscopic post-production collective founded in April 2024 by Paul Becker, Jared Sandrew and Chris Harvey, the two companies said on September 16, 2026.

Financial terms were not disclosed, Deadline reported. Outsyders' founders hold prior leadership roles at DNEG and Unity, stereo supervisor roles at Disney and creative director roles at ILM.

The two companies are framing the purchase as the first end-to-end pipeline for premium stereoscopic 3D, uniting Outsyders' conversion and processing models with Lightstorm Vision's native capture and post-production. Outsyders' platform combines real and synthetic data so that each production feeds the models that process the next one, an approach the announcement says standalone conversion tools cannot replicate. The stated result is competitive stereoscopic work in a fraction of the time and at significantly lower cost than traditional conversion.

Outsyders' credits include the IMAX 3D version of Blue Angels, the 3D reimagining of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, in which most of the 2D classic was converted in eight weeks, and Doug Liman's 8K high-frame-rate stereoscopic film Asteroid, produced for Samsung and Google. Its recent work also includes Tron: Ares and Moana, and it has more than five feature films in progress. The company had already collaborated with Lightstorm Vision on Paramount's Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), matching the look of converted footage to natively shot stereoscopic material.

Cameron said in a statement that the two teams had worked together for almost two years. "As everyone knows, I've got a very exacting eye for 3D, and I can confidently say that their work and their AI tools are world class," he said. "Together we will provide end-to-end solutions for productions and for studios, as we merge the worlds of conversion and native photographic 3D."

Becker, Outsyders' chief executive and co-founder, said the two companies had shared an approach to stereo, and that the work with Cameron "confirmed that our combined technologies were the most logical and effective step for the format."

Lightstorm Vision was founded by Cameron in 2024 and says its stereoscopic technologies have supported more than 80 films and documentaries, more than $15 billion in worldwide box office and more than 600 live sports broadcasts. The acquisition follows Lightstorm's purchase of stereoscopic camera company Stereotec earlier this year and its 2024 partnership with Meta to produce 3D content for Meta Quest devices, Variety reported. The announcement ties the timing to a new generation of stereoscopic-native Meta VR headsets and the audience it could bring to premium 3D.

For creators, the bet is on conversion rather than generation. The companies are targeting existing 2D libraries as much as new productions, which puts an AI pipeline in direct competition with the manual stereoscopic conversion work that has historically employed large vendor teams. Whether the reduced cost per title reaches productions outside the studio system has not been stated.

Lightstorm Vision has not said when Outsyders' pipeline will be available to productions outside its own slate.