Behind the success of “Arcane”, the hand of the French animation studio Fortiche

Launched in 2009 as a “small, unpretentious studio”, Frenchman Fortiche hopes to reconquer the world with the release on Saturday of season 2 of “Arcane”, an animated series adapted from the video game “League of Legends”.

Intended for those over 16 years old, this retro-futuristic style fiction follows Vi and Jinx, two sisters who are torn apart against the backdrop of conflict between Zaun, a territory of the slums, and Piltover, a rich city of the dominant, at a time when magic and technology intertwine.

Faithful to the universe of the title of the Riot Games studio which produced and wrote it, acclaimed for its graphic style mixing 2D and 3D specific to Fortiche, season 1 created a surprise by dominating the ranking of Netflix series for three weeks in 65 countries. Before gleaning a multitude of awards across the Atlantic, including four Emmy Awards.

What to build pressure before the arrival of nine new and final episodes on Saturday? “We would like to repeat this success”, admits to AFP Pascal Charrue, co-founder of Fortiche Production and co-director of “Arcane”.

“But we don’t have to be ashamed of our images. We tried to reach and even exceed the level of requirements of season 1,” he assures. This “requirement”, characteristic according to him of the “Fortiche touch”, is illustrated by the high budget allocated to the project.

– “By hand” –

Eight years of work, 12 hours of content, 700 collaborators… With a total of around 250 million dollars, according to the American magazine Variety, for the production and promotion of the two seasons, it is the most expensive never made.

Thanks to her, Fortiche, launched in the apartment of one of its three founders, has changed dimension. The studio, now based in Paris, Montpellier and Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, has employed up to 450 people simultaneously (compared to 160 currently).

The animators do everything “by hand”, each producing less than half a second of film per day, details Martial André, animation supervisor, during a visit to the Parisian studio.

Like a “marionette”, each 3D character is equipped with “around 300 controllers” on the face and body, from eyebrows to phalanges, the animators filming themselves beforehand to “understand the bodily mechanisms” to be reproduced, unfolds he.

Likewise, “each decor is a (digital) painting made by hand”, insists Barthélémy Maunoury, creative director and co-director of “Arcane”, with “many references to Art Deco and ‘Art Nouveau”.

– “Unique style” –

There is also a desire to “create new artistic directions” during particular sequences using charcoal for example, notes producer Christine Ponzevera.

“We always feel that the artist behind the image really cares about what he does,” co-creator of “Arcane” and creative director of Riot Games Christian Linke told AFP, to justify the collaboration started with Fortiche in 2013.

At the time, the French studio, which has since also produced the Marvel series “Rocket & Groot” (2017), was working on advertisements and clips, notably for the British group Gorillaz.

Seduced by one of them (“La gaviota” from the French group Limousine), Christian Linke entrusted him with a musical video around Jinx, a character from “League of Legends” which has more than 130 million views to date.

Other projects followed, including a music video for the virtual K-Pop group K/DA (613 million views) until the consecration “Arcane”.

“There were more established studios in America (…) which would have been a safer bet,” recalls Christian Linke.

But Fortiche has “such a unique style, creative instinct and passion” that “it was worth investing in and helping them grow,” he adds, while Riot Games has a minority stake in the studio .

If “Arcane” will end after season 2, stories around other characters are being considered, according to Christian Linke.

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