Why Netflix's Arcane looks so good: How Fortiche ramped up the animation pipeline

An in-depth look at the techniques, workflows, and software that brought Netflix's Arcane to life.

Based on the popular MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) game League of Legends, Netflix's Arcane captivated audiences, both when it debuted, and with the recent release of its second and, criminally, final season. 

Beyond its gripping story and compelling characters, the show broke new ground in animation and production, setting a benchmark for what an animated series can achieve. 

A new animation standard

Arcane is a collaboration between Riot Games, creators of League of Legends, and French animation studio Fortiche Production. The series explores the origins of two of the games ‘champions’ Vi and Jinx, highlighting the conflict between the thriving city of Piltover and the oppressed underground city of Zaun.

If that all sounds like nonsense to you, don’t worry. Playing League of Legends—or really being any form of gamer—is not a barrier to entry here. The show is designed to build the world and characters with the assumption that you’ve never played a game in your life. 

While Riot Games provided the story and vision, Fortiche innovated in animation by merging traditional artistry with cutting-edge technology, resulting in a unique visual style for long-form animation. The show's immediate impact garnered critical acclaim, leading to Arcane becoming the first streaming series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. 

Its success stems from several key innovations:

• A unique visual style that bridges 2D and 3D animation
• Hand-painted textures that give the show its distinctive painterly look
• Dynamic camera work that brings a cinematic quality to animation
• Emotional depth in character animation that sets new standards for the medium

These technical achievements didn't just serve the visuals—they enhanced the storytelling, creating a more immersive and emotionally resonant experience for viewers.

Understanding Arcane's animation style

What sets Arcane apart is its masterful blend of multiple animation techniques within a single frame. At its foundation lies stylized 3D animation with a distinctive rough, tactile quality—unlike the smooth finish of typical 3D animated shows. 

This base is enhanced with traditional hand-drawn animation for effects like smoke and explosions, oil painting techniques for environments, and cel-shading for character expressions. The show incorporates neon-inflected vector art for magical effects, chalk and crayon textures for psychological moments, and watercolor-like environmental effects. 

These styles aren't used in isolation—they're seamlessly integrated, allowing scenes to shift dynamically between different techniques while maintaining visual coherence. A character might move through an oil-painted environment while casting hand-drawn magical effects, all while their face seamlessly transitions between stylings depending on the emotional weight of the moment.

To achieve this unique blend of styles, Fortiche needed to develop a specialized technology pipeline that could handle these diverse animation techniques. 

The technology stack

The show was built on a mixture of industry-standard software and proprietary solutions.  

Core software

• Autodesk Maya: The foundation of the 3D pipeline, handling modeling, rigging, animation, and virtual camera work
• Adobe Photoshop: Used for texture painting, creating hand-drawn effects, and developing the show's signature painterly style
• Nuke: Primary compositing software, essential for bringing together 2D and 3D elements while maintaining visual consistency
• After Effects: Secondary compositing tool, particularly valuable for integrating hand-drawn effects and motion graphics

Custom solutions

• Proprietary shader tools: Developed to integrate hand-painted textures with 3D models
• Custom camera rigs: Created for achieving naturalistic movement and cinematic effects
• Internal asset management system: Built to handle the complex pipeline of 2D and 3D elements

Blending 2D and 3D animation

Hand-drawn effects like smoke, explosions, and Jinx's chaotic scribbles brought a raw, tactile quality to the visuals. Fortiche made the deliberate choice to animate these elements at 12 frames per second, half the rate of standard animation. 

This technical decision created a striking staccato effect that emphasized the raw, explosive nature of these elements. The lower frame rate meant each frame had to carry more visual weight, leading artists to emphasize dynamic poses and exaggerated movements that would read clearly even in quick succession.

This contrasted purposefully with the character animation and environments, which ran at the standard 24 frames per second. The smoother frame rate allowed for subtle facial expressions and fluid movement, especially crucial for emotional scenes. 

By juxtaposing these two frame rates, Fortiche created a visual language where the unstable, chaotic elements of the world felt distinctly different from the more grounded character moments. This technique proved incredibly effective for characters like Jinx, where her volatile magic and explosions would stutter and spark at 12 fps while her personal moments remained smooth and intimate at 24 fps, reinforcing her character's internal conflict through pure animation technique.

Depth and Immersion

To add depth to their scenes without overwhelming resources, Fortiche employed projection mapping, layering 2D matte-painted backgrounds onto simple 3D geometry. This technique created subtle parallax effects during camera movements, making fantastical locations like Piltover's luminous skylines and Zaun's dark industrial underbelly feel expansive and immersive.

By painting textures and lighting manually, Fortiche sidestepped the uniformity of procedural methods, ensuring that every frame reflected the series' emotional and artistic intent. The result was a visually rich world where each scene felt meticulously crafted. Despite the modern techniques employed, there is a real sense of the entirely hand-drawn origins of the medium. 

Keyframe animation over motion capture

Fortiche's decision to use keyframe animation instead of motion capture was both a stylistic and practical choice. Keyframe animation allowed animators complete control over every movement, ensuring actions aligned with the show's stylized world.

Motion capture often prioritizes realism, but for Arcane, animators needed the freedom to exaggerate movements for emotional and dramatic effect. For instance, Jinx's unhinged, erratic mannerisms were enhanced by deliberate distortions like smear frames, adding intensity and energy to her character. Vi's fight sequences, grounded in boxing techniques, contrasted sharply with Jinx's chaotic style, creating a visual language unique to each character.

To achieve this level of nuance, animators frequently acted out scenes themselves, using reference footage to guide their work. This provided a realistic foundation while allowing for creative exaggeration tailored to each character's personality and role within the story.

This handcrafted approach demanded time and patience, with animators often spending an entire day perfecting a single second of footage. However, the result was a level of emotional depth and visual cohesion that excellently served the larger story. 

Painterly textures and lighting

One of Arcane's most striking visual elements is its painterly aesthetic, a deliberate choice to evoke the feel of traditional art within a dynamic animated world. Fortiche eschewed procedural shading and automated lighting in favor of hand-painted textures and carefully crafted light and shadow. This meticulous approach not only distinguished the show visually but also reinforced its emotional tone.

Artists mimicked the brushstrokes of traditional oil painting, giving every asset a tactile, organic quality. By painting textures manually, Fortiche ensured each surface reflected the story, whether through the wear on Zaun's industrial structures or the clean elegance of Piltover's architecture.

The lighting process followed the same philosophy. Instead of relying on CG systems to generate light, artists painted highlights and shadows directly onto textures. This gave the environments a cohesive, stylized look while allowing for precise control over mood and atmosphere. 

This attention to detail made Arcane's world feel alive, textured, and emotionally resonant. By avoiding shortcuts and embracing the artistry of hand-painting, Fortiche created a visual experience that drew viewers into the heart of the story.

Dynamic camera work

Inspired by live-action filmmaking, Arcane's cinematography stands out for its use of dynamic yet often grounded camera movements. Fortiche aimed to immerse viewers by making every shot feel intentional, as though it was confined to the limitations of a real-world camera. Techniques like simulated handheld shots, naturalistic zooms, and subtle camera shakes brought a raw, human touch to the animated world.

The team's virtual camera system gave them precise control over framing, movement, and focus. This allowed them to choreograph intricate sequences that emphasized tension and emotion. For example, Ekko's duel with Jinx utilized slow motion to amplify the stakes, while rapid cuts highlighted the chaos and unpredictability of the fight.

It’s not all designed in favor of the bombastic, however. The quieter moments received equal attention. During heartfelt dialogues, the team introduced slight "handheld" imperfections, mimicking the natural movement of an actual camera operator.

Challenges and innovations

The scale of Arcane was unprecedented for Fortiche, pushing the studio to innovate at every stage of production. What began as a small team of five grew to over 300 skilled artists and technicians, all dedicated to creating a series that balanced artistic ambition with technical excellence.

To manage the complexity, Fortiche developed several key approaches:

• Layered workflows allowed multiple departments to work simultaneously
• Custom tools enabled the seamless blend of 2D and 3D elements
• Iterative testing helped refine animation timing, lighting, and compositing
• Rigorous quality control ensured consistency across episodes

These innovations weren't born without challenges. Delays from script rewrites and technical hurdles threatened production timelines, but these obstacles ultimately led to a more potent, more refined final product.

The Legacy of Arcane

Arcane isn't just a triumph for Riot Games and Fortiche; it's a milestone for the animation industry. By combining cutting-edge techniques with traditional artistry, the series demonstrated that animated storytelling can be both visually stunning and emotionally resonant. 

Although Arcane may be finished, several more shows set within the larger world of the story are in various stages or production. If they can muster the same level of visual artistry and technical panache as this starting effort, then I will be there for each and every one. 

tl;dr

• Arcane combines 2D and 3D animation techniques together, resulting in a distinctive visual style characterized by hand-painted textures and dynamic camera work.
• The series utilizes various animation techniques within a single frame, including oil painting for environments, hand-drawn effects for magical elements, and cel-shading for character expressions.
• Fortiche developed a specialized technology pipeline that incorporates industry-standard software such as Autodesk Maya and Adobe Photoshop, alongside proprietary tools for custom shaders and camera rigs.
• The series employs differing frame rates, using 12 frames per second for hand-drawn effects to create a staccato effect, while maintaining 24 frames per second for smoother character animation, enhancing emotional depth in storytelling.