A Look Into the Hit Studio Behind “Arcane”

Key Takeaways

• Fortiche’s unique blend of 2D and 3D animation sets them apart in a saturated field of competition.
• The studio’s journey started with commercials and music videos, leading to collaborations with major companies.
• Fortiche’s success with Riot Games, such as producing League of Legends cinematics, ultimately landed them the opportunity to create the hit series Arcane.

With Arcane becoming a smash hit animated series, we should take a look at the innovative French animation studio behind the series’ success. Fortiche’s unique take on animation, which combines 2D and 3D elements to make incredibly dynamic and stunning animated projects, makes Arcane stand out from the field of animation that is increasingly flooded with new options. With their first projects being centered around commercial advertisements, they have since gone on to make music videos and now full animated series. This has led to collaborations with Gorillas, Marvel and now, famously, Riot with Arcane.

In the world of TV and film studios, Fortiche is still a rather young venture. However, with the continuing success of their productions, the future looks bright for them to be a major creative force in the industry. But while we can talk about their success now, let’s dive back into their history to see where it all started.

Founding of Studio and Mission

The studio began its journey in 2009, when founders Jérôme Combe, Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord created Fortiche (which roughly translates to “Ace” or “Hotshot”). While they would found the studio in France, from the very beginning they had aspirations to turn Fortiche into a globally influential animation studio.

They began working on commercial advertisements, landing work for major corporations like Coca-Cola and Samsung. They would eventually move into music video production as well, with their first big break coming with their collaboration with Gorillaz. Once they got work under their belt in music videos, major game studios also took notice of their work. After music videos, work for studios like Ubisoft, Volition and Riot Games followed. While Arcane is now certainly their most famous production, this was not their first video game adaptation. Working with Ubisoft, they co-produced the show, Rabbids Invasion alongside Netflix and Nickelodeon.

The goal with Fortiche from the very beginning was to achieve and set a new international standard for creativity in the field of animation. The steady improvement and refinement of their unique animation style has brought them to where they are today.

“At Fortiche, while we appreciate and are inspired by various productions, our goal is to carve out our own unique route and bring something original to the table.” – Pascal Charrue, one of the founders of Fortiche

Their First Major Projects

While Fortiche began working with large international corporations like Coca-Cola and Samsung for commercial advertisements fairly early on in their company timeline, this wouldn’t be the work that they have ultimately become famous for.

Arguably, the first projects that you could say showed the promise of their future would be animated music videos with projects like Freak of the Week/Freak Kitchen, and Gorillaz. It is through these ventures that their now famous style would begin to take clearer shape, and their unique potential was beginning to unfold.

Perhaps their biggest windfall was landing projects with Riot Games, with their first collaboration being for League of Legends cinematics, specifically for Jinx, who fittingly is now one of the main focuses of their Arcane series. These collaborations continued, with Fortiche eventually producing the hit music video for League of Legends in universe popstar group K/DA, before they landed the contract to produce the now wildly successful series Arcane.

During that time, they also produced the Marvel series Rocket & Groot, among some other personal projects.

Landing Arcane

One of the main questions circling around Fortiche right now is, how did they land Arcane? With Riot and parent company Tencent being multi-billion dollar corporations, they likely had their pick of animation studios to choose from. With games like Genshin Impact and other Gachas choosing major studios like MAPPA to produce their animated forays into the IP, why did Riot choose Fortiche to collaborate with?

The story starts over 10 years ago, after Fortiche created a music video for the song, “La Gaviota”. Christian Linke, would-be Arcane showrunner was enamored with Fortiche’s art direction and was inspired to continue working with them into the future. This would lead to their first collaboration with Riot, making the “Get Jinxed” cinematic for League of Legends. A decade later, with Fortiche producing the “Warriors” music video for League of Legends World Championship, among many other League features, their efforts eventually landed them in the right position for when Riot was ready to move forward with a TV series.

“Our turning point came when Christian Linke,

Arcane

‘s showrunner, was captivated by the creative direction and overall aesthetic we developed in the ”

La Gaviota

” music video.” – Fortiche founder Pascal Charrue in an interview with Crunchyroll.

What Does the Future Look Like for Fortiche?

With Riot’s extensive investment in Fortiche (Riot Games staff now sit on the board of directors for Fortiche, and Riot even owns a non-controlling stake in the company), we can expect to see many more stories from the universe of Runeterra in the coming years. With these investments, it looks like Fortiche is gearing up to handle these projects and many more. While creating Arcane, over a six-year period, the staff of Fortiche allegedly grew from 15 to now around 300, with that number likely continuing to increase. They have opened branch studios, with one opening in France, and another in Spain.

In terms of their own original IP and most likely their next release, Penelope of Sparta is an original Sci-Fi coming of age story inspired by ancient Greek mythology. This will be the studio’s first full-length feature film and with the hype and success of Arcane, audiences should be excited for this and much more to come from Fortiche.

Arcane is now available to stream on Netflix.