How Arcane Raises the Bar for Animation
- rich-66
- Nov 28, 2024
- 5 min read
Movie adaptations of video games have a historic reputation of being fairly poor and to some extent, even laughable. Recent releases have proved this, with Borderlands receiving 10% on Rotton Tomatos, Warcraft 29%, Assassin’s Creed 19%, Monster Hunter 44%...you get the picture. It seems that if you want a guaranteed box office flop, then you just need to choose a video game to adapt to the big screen, and although there might be some good movie adaptations, these are usually the exception.
So how has Netflix’s adaption of the League of Legends game, Arcane, bucked the trend, defied all odds and been granted a second season following the monumental success of the first season? This animated series has become a shining example of how to adapt a video game to the screen, not only with a captivating story, but beautifully rendered animations. First, let’s look at what League of Legends is and how this undertaking from Fortiche Studios had a lot riding on it, considering the hardcore fan-base of the game.
What is League of Legends?
Launched in 2009, League of Legends has grown into one of the biggest games in the world, with millions of players globally and a massive e-sports scene. Tournaments draw huge audiences, with professional teams competing for major prizes and worldwide fame.
Each player in League of Legends picks a unique character called a “champion,” and with over 160 champions to choose from, each with their own abilities, strengths, and personalities, there’s endless variety. Champions can fill different roles (like fighters, mages, or healers), so strategy and teamwork are essential. As you play, you earn in-game currency and experience to level up and buy items that boost their champions' abilities.
You might be asking how a game such as this could possibly be made into a 9-part series, not only for one season, but two. Well, this all comes down to one of the reasons League of Legends itself is popular, and it’s not just to do with the addictive gameplay, but also the rich and complicated lore. Riot Games had created a backstory for every playable character, environment and world, providing a huge amount of content to draw upon. Arcane just takes a small element of this lore and brings it to life, centred around a few of it’s most popular characters, notably Jinx, Vi and Caitlyn. So, this is the first ingredient to the success, but the next ingredient is how it’s bought to life, and that’s through the eye-catching animation, which Fortiche already had experience in, creating game trailers previously for Riot Games.
Drawing from Animated Experience
From humble beginnings in 2009, Fortiche studies started work on TV advertisements with brands such as Coca Cola, Honda and Samsung.
When they partnered with Riot Games, they initially gained attention for their work on music videos for League of Legends songs, like Get Jinxed and K/DA – POP/STARS, which showcased their signature animation style and helped bring League of Legends characters to life. Their visuals combine realistic motion with stylised character designs and bold colour palettes, which has set them apart in the animation world.
But in the background, they were also working on the 6 year project, that would be the first season of Arcane, and in 2021, it would be the highest viewed series on Netflix for two weeks. The studios turnover increased to 16.4 million euros, and the team grew from 15 to around 300 during this time. Since Arcane premiered, Riot Games announced a new equity investment in Fortiche Production giving them a significant non-controlling stake in the studio.
A Match Made in Heaven
But how did this match made in heaven overcome the curse of movie adaptations? If you have the patience and morbid curiosity perhaps, you’ll watch the examples I mentioned at the start, and notice a correlation. They all try to shoehorn the gameplay into the screenplay. It’s a low effort attempt to appease the fans, which ultimately falls flat, because the audience can see right through it. Where Arcane differs, is it’s focus on the story. Yes, there are some fight scenes, which are spectacles in their own right, along with in-game references and fan service, but unlike the game itself, it doesn’t revolve solely around this. Instead, it builds on the established world, lore and characters, giving the audience deeper insight, whether they’re fans of the game or not. You don’t have to get the references which only players might understand. You can dive right into the series as a stand-alone story, which is rich in character development, relationships and politics, giving a firm footed believability. You’re invested on a deeper level than just ogling at superficial choreography and special effects.
After all this success, it’s crazy to consider that Arcane almost didn’t make it into production. Following an internal review of the story and test animation, Riot Games were nearly ready to pull the plug, but Fortiche weren’t going down without a fight and decided to show off their skills with the music videos “Get Jinxed” and “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons. It was enough to convince Riot Games to invest in this small studio, taking the first step towards something audiences had never seen before and setting a new bar for animation, rivaling that of giants such as Disney and Dreamworks.
But why is this animation so different? With a lot of CGI aiming for realistic textures, Fortiche went the other way and took the approach of hand-painting each environment and character. The shading and materials are baked into the models, with visible brush strokes, accenting highlights and shadows. Usually, studios might shy away from these sorts of visuals, but coupled with smooth, fluid animation, which considers every detail from the small eye movements of the character to the subtlety of their breathing and even their mannerisms, you have an animation like nothing before. These tiny details, which can take hours of work and might easily be missed by the viewer on a conscious level are what makes Arcane stand out. You notice the quality without noticing it, which is what great animation should aim to achieve. The bridge between believability and imagination.
What’s Next?
You might be disheartened to learn that Season 2 of Arcane is the last one of this series, concluding the epic saga at the end of 2024, but for any animation geeks, there will be more things to look forward to. It seems that Fortiche have laid down the gauntlet for other studios to take a shot at the crown for the most streamed animated series.
Love, Death & Robots was another animated eye-catcher by Blur Studios, also available to watch on Netflix, but now they turn their attention to the gamer audience as well, with their upcoming series, Secret Level on Amazon Prime, taking our favourite characters from video games and creating individual stories for each episode.
There are many more hidden gems for animation geeks also available on Netflix, such as Scavenger’s Reign and Blue Eye Samurai, which deserve more attention and, who knows, perhaps we’re entering the golden era of game adaptations, finding its niche in streaming services and passionate, experienced animation studios, breaking the curse once and for all.
This also won’t be the last we see of Fortiche and although season 2 marks the end of Arcane, Riot Games will undoubtedly have bigger plans for the studio, whether it’s more music videos, new stories or…who knows…even a feature length film?
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