What 3D Program Did Arcane Use? An In-Depth Look at the Animation Tools Behind Riot Games’ Hit Series

Introduction: Unveiling the Technology Behind Arcane

Arcane, created by Riot Games and Fortiche Productions, captivated audiences with its revolutionary visual style that seamlessly blends 2D and 3D. Its painterly textures, cinematic lighting, and dynamic action make every frame feel like a living illustration. This article explores the core software and techniques behind Arcane’s artistry, revealing the tools that brought its unique aesthetic to life.

More than just stunning visuals, Arcane’s hybrid animation style played a crucial role in storytelling, earning it the first-ever Emmy for a streaming animated series. The production relied on Autodesk Maya for 3D animation, with supporting tools like Houdini and ZBrush to craft the rich worlds of Piltover and Zaun. This deep dive into Arcane’s animation pipeline will break down the techniques Fortiche used, providing insight for animators, 3D artists, and fans eager to understand its groundbreaking approach.

Arcane’s Unique Animation Style: A Hybrid Approach

Arcane’s animation blends 3D modeling with 2D artistry, a technique known as the “Fortiche Touch.” Characters and objects are 3D models, but hand-drawn textures and effects give them a painterly, concept art-like quality. Fortiche pioneered this approach by integrating 3D animation with 2D details like brushstrokes and sketch lines, making it difficult to distinguish between the two. Many backgrounds are actually 2D matte paintings, seamlessly composited with 3D characters.

This hybrid style enhances storytelling by using hand-drawn 2D effects—such as smoke, fire, and magical energy—over 3D animation, creating a visually expressive and dynamic experience. The combination of sketchy 2D elements with smooth 3D movement makes action scenes more visceral while giving Arcane a distinctive, art-driven aesthetic. The result is a world that feels like a living painting, immersing audiences in the rich environments of Piltover and Zaun. In the next sections, we’ll explore how Fortiche achieved this groundbreaking animation step by step.

The Production Pipeline of Arcane

Creating Arcane’s episodes required a detailed production pipeline that blended traditional animation workflows with innovative techniques. Fortiche Productions handled the entire process in-house, from concept art to final editing, ensuring seamless integration across departments. Their pipeline included concept design, 3D modeling, rigging, animation, effects, lighting, and compositing. The production began with scripts and storyboards, then moved into character and environment design before advancing to full 3D production and post-production.

Let’s break down the key stages of Arcane’s animation workflow and the tools involved at each stage:

• Concept Art & Design: Each episode began with concept artists painting Piltover and Zaun, defining color palettes and the painterly style that guided the entire production. These artworks served as references for 3D modelers and texture artists, ensuring that even in 3D, the final visuals maintained the look of the original paintings, a key aspect of Fortiche’s unique style.
• 3D Modeling & Sculpting: Character models were created in Maya for base meshes and detailed in ZBrush, where artists sculpted fine features like wrinkles, costumes, and props. The high-resolution sculpts were then retopologized for animation in Maya. Environments, including buildings and streets, were also modeled in Maya, sometimes enhanced with sculpting or procedural tools for added complexity.
• Rigging: After finalizing models, riggers in Maya created skeletons and controls for character movement and expressions. Arcane’s rigging was highly advanced, featuring real-time rigs that let animators see near-final deformations and facial expressions in the viewport, speeding up workflow. Fortiche likely used Maya’s scripting tools (MEL/Python) to develop custom rigging solutions, including proprietary facial rigs for nuanced expressions.
• Animation: With rigs in place, around 80 animators used keyframe animation in Maya to bring characters to life, as Arcane did not use motion capture. They manually crafted movements, referencing live-action footage for inspiration. The process included scene layout, camera planning, and using Maya’s tools for cinematic shots with dynamic framing. Efficient rigs allowed real-time motion review, reducing the need for frequent playblasts, streamlining the workflow.
• Effects & Simulation: Arcane’s environmental and VFX elements, like dust, debris, and energy blasts, used a mix of 3D simulations and hand-drawn 2D effects. Houdini was likely used for complex physics-based simulations, such as collapsing buildings, magical particles, and fluid dynamics. However, many effects were enhanced or entirely redrawn by 2D artists. Smoke, sparks, and explosions were often hand-animated over 3D renders. Some effects began as Houdini or Maya simulations for realism but were later painted frame-by-frame to match Arcane’s painterly aesthetic, blending realism with stylized animation.
• Texturing & Shading: Texturing was essential to Arcane’s painterly look. Artists hand-painted textures in Photoshop (and possibly Substance Painter) for characters, props, and environments, adding brushstrokes, color variations, and imperfections instead of using flat colors or procedural materials. Fortiche also developed custom shaders to preserve the hand-painted aesthetic under lighting, reducing realistic CG effects like specular highlights. This combination of painted textures and specialized shaders prevented the plasticky look of typical CG, ensuring seamless integration with 2D elements.
• Lighting & Rendering: Lighting artists used Maya to place virtual lights, setting the mood for each scene, from Zaun’s warm glow to Piltover’s bright daylight. Arcane’s lighting balanced realism with artistic intent to maintain its painterly aesthetic. Fortiche likely used a high-quality render engine like Arnold or Redshift to render frames with 3D elements and hand-painted textures. Each frame was output in layers (or “passes”), allowing flexibility in compositing for characters, backgrounds, and effects.
• Compositing: The final step was compositing, primarily done in Foundry Nuke, with Adobe After Effects used for certain tasks. Compositors combined 3D characters, 2D background paintings, and 2D animated effects into a cohesive frame. They ensured seamless blending by matching colors, adding depth of field blur, glows, and other post-processing adjustments. This step made different elements—like Jinx running through a 2D painted street with 3D smoke and 2D sparks—feel like part of the same world. After Effects was likely used for motion graphics and subtle drawn embellishments. The result was Arcane’s signature hybrid look: rich hand-drawn details with the depth and fluidity of 3D animation.
• Editing & Music: Although not part of the “animation software” per se, it’s worth noting that once scenes were composited, they were edited to the final episodes and combined with an orchestral score and sound effects. The tight integration of visuals and music in Arcane also contributed to its impact, though those are beyond our focus on 3D tools.

Fortiche used an internal asset management system to track models, textures, and animation files across its Paris, Montpellier, and Las Palmas offices. Collaboration tools like Shotgun/ShotGrid (or proprietary systems) ensured teams worked with the correct versions and received feedback efficiently. Arcane’s pipeline combined industry standards with custom innovations, creating a seamless workflow. Next, we’ll explore the central software behind it: Autodesk Maya.

Autodesk Maya: The Core 3D Animation Software

If there’s one software that can be called Arcane’s 3D backbone, it’s Autodesk Maya. Maya served as the core 3D animation program for Arcane, handling everything from initial modeling and rigging to the final keyframe animations and camera layout. As an industry-standard 3D package, Maya was a natural choice for Fortiche and Riot Games’ production, given its robustness and the large talent pool of artists familiar with it. Let’s explore Maya’s role in Arcane and why it was ideal for this project:

• Modeling & Scene Assembly: Maya’s modeling tools were used to create characters and environments, including Piltover’s hextech machines and Zaun’s industrial pipes. Its referencing system ensured model updates, like refining Vi’s gauntlets, automatically applied across all shots.
• Rigging & Skinning: Maya’s advanced rigging system enabled expressive facial animation and realistic character movement. Custom rigs used blendshapes and IK/FK controls, with real-time rigs allowing animators to work without delays. Scripting tools further optimized the process.
• Animation: Every movement in Arcane was hand-keyframed in Maya. Animators used the Graph Editor for precise motion control, while Maya’s camera tools allowed film-like cinematography with dynamic shots and lens settings.
• Integration with Other Tools: Maya acted as the central hub, integrating with ZBrush for modeling, Houdini for effects, and exporting animation data for rendering. It supported alembic caches to preview effects before final output.
• Reliability and Industry Trust: Maya’s proven track record in film and gaming made it a dependable choice. Its widespread use also allowed Fortiche to hire skilled animators easily, ensuring Arcane met its high artistic and technical standards.

Maya was the backbone of Arcane’s 3D pipeline, managing modeling, rigging, animation, and virtual camera work. Its stability allowed Fortiche to push creative boundaries without technical limitations. Choosing Maya as the core tool ensured the team could focus on artistry while efficiently handling 3D assets and animation. Next, we’ll explore other supporting tools that complemented Maya in Arcane’s production.

Supporting Tools: Houdini, ZBrush, and Custom Solutions

While Maya was the main software, Arcane relied on additional tools like Houdini for simulations, ZBrush for sculpting, and proprietary solutions for efficiency and style. These specialized tools were essential to achieving its polished final look.

• Houdini (SideFX): Houdini, known for its node-based procedural workflow, played a key role in Arcane’s physics-driven effects and dynamic simulations. It was used for shattering glass, magic particles, and environmental destruction, creating realistic motion for elements like fire, smoke, and debris. Fortiche’s FX artists integrated these simulations into Arcane’s scenes, but instead of using raw outputs, they often painted over them to match the show’s painterly aesthetic. This blend of Houdini’s technical precision with Fortiche’s artistic style helped create some of Arcane’s most striking moments, such as Jinx’s flare gun smoke and explosive fight sequences.
• ZBrush (Pixologic): ZBrush, the industry-leading digital sculpting tool, was essential for Arcane’s high-resolution character and asset details. While Maya handled general modeling, ZBrush allowed artists to sculpt fine details like Vander’s facial features, Jayce’s hammer engravings, and intricate costume stitching. The workflow involved modeling a base in Maya, sculpting high-frequency details in ZBrush, then baking them into normal or displacement maps for efficient rendering. This ensured rich textures in close-up shots while keeping models animation-friendly. By combining ZBrush’s sculpting with Maya’s modeling, Fortiche captured the artistry of the concept designs in 3D.
• Adobe Photoshop & Other 2D Tools: Arcane’s production relied heavily on 2D tools, with Adobe Photoshop as the primary software for painting textures and concept art. Artists hand-painted details like Jinx’s tattoos and Piltover’s weathered metal, ensuring precise artistic control. Photoshop was also used for matte painting backgrounds and skyboxes. Substance Painter may have been used for texturing assets with wear and gradients before refining them in Photoshop. For 2D animated effects like fire and smoke, tools like TVPaint or Adobe Animate were likely used. The 2D pipeline worked closely with 3D, making Photoshop a key hub for hand-painted visuals.
• Custom Proprietary Tools: Beyond standard software, Fortiche developed custom-built tools to enhance Arcane’s visuals and streamline production. Proprietary shaders ensured hand-painted textures maintained consistent brushstrokes under different lighting and allowed real-time painterly adjustments. Custom camera rigs enabled realistic handheld and dynamic camera movements, giving the series a live-action feel. An internal asset-tracking and version-control system helped manage thousands of 3D and 2D assets across multiple locations, ensuring seamless updates. Fortiche also likely created in-house scripts and plugins to automate repetitive tasks, improving workflow efficiency.
• Other 3D Software: Though not officially confirmed, Blender may have been used by some Fortiche artists for quick previsualization or grease-pencil storyboarding, while Maya remained the main 3D tool. Nuke and After Effects handled compositing, and Premiere Pro or Avid were likely used for final editing after rendering, a standard practice in post-production.

Arcane’s creation relied on a suite of specialized tools working together: Maya for core animation, ZBrush for sculptural detail, Houdini for simulations, and Photoshop for hand-painted artistry, with custom plugins streamlining the workflow. This multi-tool ecosystem allowed seamless data flow between software, ensuring Fortiche could achieve Arcane’s ambitious visuals without limitations. Next, we’ll explore how these tools shaped Arcane’s signature artistic style.

Achieving Arcane’s Signature Look: Techniques and Processes

Arcane’s “painting in motion” aesthetic was a result of deliberate techniques blending modern 3D methods with traditional art principles. A key factor was hand-painted textures, replacing photorealistic or procedural materials with artistically painted surfaces. Piltover’s cityscape, walls, streets, and costumes were all textured to resemble hand-painted artwork, with visible brushstrokes, rich color variation, and painterly shading. These textures, primarily created in Photoshop, followed concept art references for consistency. By manually painting highlights, shadows, and imperfections onto texture maps, Fortiche ensured that 3D models looked like artwork even before lighting was applied, bridging the gap between 2D and 3D for a unique illustrative quality.

• Painterly Shading and Lighting: Beyond hand-painted textures, lighting and shading were key to preserving Arcane’s painted aesthetic. Fortiche used custom shaders in Maya to avoid physically-based rendering (PBR), instead opting for artistic lighting choices. Light falloff was adjusted to mimic dramatic, high-contrast lighting seen in comic book and classical art, rather than realistic CG rendering. Rim lighting and color stylization highlighted characters in a graphic way. For example, Zaun’s interior scenes featured purple or green bounce lights, not from real sources but to enhance mood and match the scene’s color script. These choices ensured every frame stayed true to the artistic vision rather than strict realism.
• 2D Effects and Overlays: A bold technique in Arcane’s process was the extensive use of 2D effects over 3D animation. Instead of relying on particle systems or simulations, Fortiche’s 2D animators hand-drew effects like sparks, smoke trails, muzzle flashes, rain, and camera scuffs, ensuring a sketchy, rough quality that matched the painted textures of the 3D world. This approach allowed for creative exaggeration, such as Jinx’s chaotic graffiti and neon symbols, which visualized her emotions in a way realism couldn’t. By keeping these elements 2D, Arcane seamlessly blended expressive, surreal imagery with its detailed 3D environments while maintaining graphical consistency.
• Frame Rate Blending: Arcane employed a technique of mixing frame rates: 2D hand-drawn effects were animated at 12 frames per second (fps), creating a staccato, staggered look, while the main 3D character animation remained at 24 fps. This blend resulted in fluid character movement contrasted with choppy 2D effects, like smoke or debris. For example, Jinx’s weapon fire flashes and smoke jitter at 12 fps, highlighting the erratic action, while her movements are smooth. This contrast enhances the tactile feel, making 2D effects appear “otherworldly” or artistically amplified, fitting Arcane’s tone, and drawing attention to effects without overt slow-motion.
• Projection Mapping: Arcane used projection mapping to maintain its painted look while allowing for dynamic camera movement. This technique involved projecting 2D digital paintings onto simple 3D geometry, such as low-poly buildings, to create depth and parallax effects. For example, Piltover’s skyline could be a flat painting mapped onto 3D planes, making it feel 3D as the camera moved. This method combined the beauty of 2D matte paintings with the flexibility of 3D, saving effort while keeping the hand-crafted look consistent. Fortiche balanced this approach so seamlessly that viewers focused on the story rather than the technique.
• Color Grading and Post-Processing: After compositing, Arcane’s final look was refined through color grading, enhancing contrast, adding vignettes, and ensuring colors matched the scene’s emotion. Zaun featured teals and pinks, while Piltover had golds and blues, all fine-tuned in post. Additional post-processing included depth of field for cinematic blur, film grain to avoid CG perfection, and hand-drawn camera effects like scratches and glow blooms. These elements made Arcane feel like a moving oil painting, reinforcing its unique painterly style.

Arcane’s meticulous blend of 3D technology and 2D artistry created a visually groundbreaking show, rarely seen in television animation. This approach set it apart from typical CG productions, proving that animation can break conventional molds. Next, we’ll explore insights from the creators and industry experts, including the challenges they faced and overcame.

Behind-the-Scenes Insights: Interviews and Expert Opinions

To truly appreciate the craft behind Arcane, it helps to hear from the people who made it. Several interviews with Fortiche’s team and animation experts have shed light on what went on behind the scenes during Arcane’s production. These insights reveal the philosophy, challenges, and creative decisions that defined the project. Here are some key behind-the-scenes takeaways:

• “Keyframe, keyframe, keyframe” – All animation was done via keyframing, not motion capture, allowing for stylized, exaggerated movements. Animators used live-action references but translated them into Arcane’s unique style. This was labor-intensive, involving a team of 80 animators.
• Collaboration Between Departments: Fortiche’s departments (layout, animation, 2D, compositing) worked in close collaboration, with constant communication and parallel work. Voice acting and storyboards also influenced animation.
• Maintaining Consistent Style – An internal style guide (“visual bible”) ensured consistent style. Animators focused on “appeal” in every frame, using concept art and draw-overs. A library of facial expressions and poses maintained character consistency.
• Overcoming Technical Challenges: Integrating 2D effects with 3D animation required overcoming challenges like depth and lighting. Solutions involved depth passes and manual painting of lighting and shadows.
• Expert Praise and Industry Buzz: Animation professionals lauded Arcane’s blend of 2D and 3D, citing it as a new era of stylized CG. Experts noted its success demonstrated audience readiness for experimental visuals. The six-year production time highlighted the commitment to quality.
• Team Culture at Fortiche: Fortiche fostered a creative environment where artists felt at home and were encouraged to experiment. The studio prioritized “coolness” and graphic quality, driving innovation and dedication to detail.

Hearing these insights from those who worked on Arcane reveals that the show’s animation triumph was as much about the people and their artistic mindset as it was about software and technology. The tools were wielded by artists who had a clear vision and the determination to realize it. Next, we’ll step back and compare Arcane’s workflow to more traditional 3D animation approaches, highlighting how its unique process differed and what that means for the industry.

Comparing Arcane’s Workflow to Traditional 3D Animation

Arcane’s production process is notable for how it departed from traditional 3D animation workflows in several ways. By “traditional,” we can consider how a typical big-budget 3D animated film (like those from Pixar/DreamWorks) or a standard TV 3D animation pipeline might operate. Let’s compare Arcane’s approach to the norm, examining the benefits and limitations of the hybrid workflow used by Fortiche:

• 2D/3D Hybrid vs. Pure 3D: Unlike traditional pipelines that rely entirely on 3D, Arcane combined hand-drawn 2D and 3D elements, creating a unique painterly aesthetic. This required both 2D and 3D expertise, making the process more complex but visually richer.
• Keyframe Stylization vs. Motion Capture Realism: Instead of using motion capture, all animation was hand-keyframed, allowing for expressive poses and dramatic silhouettes. While this required more animator-hours, it resulted in greater artistic control.
• Painterly Textures vs. Procedural/Photoreal: Arcane hand-painted textures rather than using photorealistic or procedural materials, ensuring every surface felt unique. Though time-consuming, this prevented repetitive CGI textures.
• Compositing-Heavy Workflow vs. Render-Heavy Workflow: Unlike standard workflows where most details are handled in 3D, Arcane relied heavily on compositing, integrating 2D effects, hand-drawn textures, and background paintings in post-production. This gave flexibility but required precise coordination.
• Hybrid Frame Rates vs. Single Frame Rate: Arcane mixed 24fps for 3D characters with 12fps for 2D effects, adding a dynamic, stylized motion. Though complex, this technique emphasized action and chaos in key scenes.
• Resource and Budget Considerations: Arcane’s $90–100 million budget and six-year development were significantly higher than most animated series. While not every project can match this investment, its techniques inspire new approaches in animation.

Lessons from Arcane’s Workflow

Arcane proved that mixing animation styles can deliver groundbreaking results, but requires strong pipeline engineering to avoid overwhelming complexity. Fortiche built an artist-friendly workflow, ensuring technical tools supported creativity. The series’ success demonstrated that audiences appreciate visual innovation, setting a new benchmark for the animation industry.

In comparing Arcane’s workflow to a traditional one, it’s clear that Arcane took the road less traveled in many respects. The benefits are evident in every frame, but it’s also apparent that this method requires a rare mix of resources, talent, and determination. The animation industry is already seeing Arcane as a case study in pushing boundaries. In the next section, we’ll discuss how the choices of software and workflow contributed to Arcane’s success and what that means for the future of animation projects, including games and series.

The Role of Software Choices in Arcane’s Success

Arcane’s triumph is not solely due to its story or characters – the software choices and technology pipeline played a pivotal role in enabling the creative vision. By selecting the right tools for each job and developing custom solutions where needed, the Arcane team was able to achieve their ambitious goals. Let’s analyze how these software choices contributed to Arcane’s success and what implications they have for future animation projects:

• Empowering Artists with Familiar Tools: Fortiche relied on Maya, Photoshop, and Nuke, ensuring that artists could work efficiently with familiar tools, reducing training time and technical friction.
• Choosing Maya for its Comprehensive Feature Set: Maya’s comprehensive features allowed animation, rigging, modeling, and virtual camera work to be handled in one place, avoiding workflow bottlenecks from constant software switching.
• Extending Capabilities with Specialized Software: Houdini handled high-end simulations, while ZBrush provided detailed sculpting, ensuring film-quality assets without compromising efficiency.
• Integration and Customization: Fortiche developed proprietary shaders and tools to blend 2D and 3D seamlessly, modify camera effects, and improve real-time feedback, pushing past software limitations.
• Scalability and Team Coordination: Using widely adopted tools like Maya and Nuke made it easier to onboard artists and ensure pipeline reusability for future projects, leading Riot Games to invest in Fortiche after Arcane’s success.
• Influence on Other Productions: Arcane’s hybrid 2D/3D pipeline may inspire studios to integrate more 2D elements into 3D workflows, potentially increasing the use of game engines like Unreal for future animation production.
• Future of Software in Animation: Arcane’s success has spurred discussions about the potential of real-time engines and AI tools in animation, emphasizing that technology should serve the artistic vision.

In conclusion, Arcane’s software choices were foundational to its success. By leveraging the strengths of established programs and extending them with custom innovations, the team ensured that they were limited only by their imaginations and not by their tools. For any upcoming animators or studios, Arcane serves as a masterclass in picking your tools wisely: use trusted software for reliability, incorporate specialized tools for excellence in each area, and don’t be afraid to create new tools if your vision demands it. This approach is likely to shape the future of 3D animation in both series and video games, as more creators aim to replicate Arcane’s alchemy of art and technology.

Conclusion: What We Can Learn from Arcane’s Animation Process

Arcane’s animation process showcases innovation, artistic vision, and technical excellence, proving that story and style should drive technology, not the other way around.

• Artistic Vision First: Every software and pipeline choice was made to serve the gritty yet painterly world, blending 2D and 3D seamlessly.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Arcane broke down barriers between concept artists, modelers, animators, and compositors, emphasizing a holistic creative process where disciplines merged.
• Pushing the Medium: Instead of a safe, purely 3D look, Arcane dared to experiment, proving that audiences appreciate artistic risk when executed well.
• Time and Iteration Matter: Years of development and refinement led to Arcane’s polished final product, reinforcing that quality requires patience and dedication.
• Industry Impact: Arcane has already begun influencing animation, with studios likely to adopt painterly aesthetics and hybrid pipelines. Riot Games’ investment in Fortiche suggests more projects in this style are on the horizon.

Arcane’s groundbreaking approach serves as a blueprint for future animation, proving that with passion, skill, and the right technology, studios can create visually stunning, emotionally resonant storytelling that pushes the boundaries of 3D animation.

FAQ Section: 10 Common Questions Answered

To wrap up, let’s address some frequently asked questions about Arcane’s animation process, the software choices behind it, and its impact on the industry. These are questions both fans and budding animators often ask:

1. What 3D program was used to animate Arcane?
   Autodesk Maya was the primary 3D software for modeling, rigging, character animation, and camera shots. ZBrush and Houdini were used for sculpting and effects, but Maya was central due to its strong animation tools and industry-standard status.
2. Did Arcane use 2D or 3D animation?
   Arcane blended 3D animation for characters and objects (via Maya) with 2D hand-drawn techniques for backgrounds and effects like smoke and fire. This combination, known as the “Fortiche Touch,” created a unique visual style.
3. Did Arcane use motion capture for the character animation?
   No, all character animation was manually keyframed for creative control, allowing stylized movements that fit the artistic look. Video references were used, but every frame was hand-animated.
4. How did Arcane achieve its unique painterly art style in a 3D animation?
   The painterly style came from hand-painted textures on models, custom shaders for soft lighting, and composited 2D effects (e.g., smoke, glows) added in Nuke and After Effects post-rendering.
5. What is Fortiche and what was their role in Arcane’s production?
   Fortiche Production, a French studio, created Arcane with Riot Games, handling all animation aspects from concept to compositing. Known for their 2D/3D blend (“Fortiche Touch”), they had prior experience with Riot on music videos, influencing Arcane’s style.
6. How long did it take to animate Arcane, and how big was the team?
   The first season took six years to produce, with a large team of 80 animators and hundreds of artists. The hand-crafted style and pandemic delays contributed to the long production time.
7. What tools besides Maya were used in Arcane’s animation process?
   Additional tools included ZBrush (sculpting), Houdini (simulations), Photoshop (textures), Substance Painter (texturing), Nuke (compositing), After Effects (motion graphics), Premiere Pro/Avid (editing), and custom tools developed by Fortiche.
8. Can I learn to create animations in a style similar to Arcane?
   Yes, but it requires mastering 3D animation (Maya/Blender), digital sculpting (ZBrush), texturing (Substance Painter/Photoshop), 2D art and effects (Toon Boom/Animate), and compositing (After Effects/Nuke). Studying Arcane’s frames and practicing fundamentals is key.
9. Did the Arcane team use Blender or other open-source software in the production?
   Blender was not a main tool; Maya was primary. Some artists might have used Blender for minor tasks, but Fortiche relied on industry-standard tools. Blender can still be used to recreate Arcane’s style.
10. How has Arcane influenced the animation industry since its release?
    Arcane proved that unique visual styles can succeed, encouraging studios to experiment. Riot’s investment in Fortiche highlights the value of high-quality animation, potentially leading to more game studio-animation house collaborations.

References & Additional Resources

For further reading and insights into Arcane’s animation process and the tools behind it, check out these sources and materials:

• Arcane: Bridging the Rift (Documentary Series) – A five-part YouTube documentary by Riot Games and Fortiche that explores the making of Arcane. Episode 3, “Killstreaks Meet Keyframes,” is especially relevant as it shows the animation pipeline and how different departments collaborated​80.lv​80.lv.
• 80 Level – Arcane Articles – For example, “Recreating Arcane’s Ekko in Maya and ZBrush” – an interview with a 3D artist about mimicking Arcane’s style on a personal project, which sheds light on the modeling/texturing workflow and can be insightful for learners (Arystan Aubakir’s interview). Also, 80.lv coverage of Arcane’s documentary episodes provides summaries of pipeline insights​80.lv.
• Riot Games Press Release on Fortiche Investment – News about Riot Games investing in Fortiche Production after Arcane’s success, underlining the importance of their collaboration and the intention to create more content in the Arcane style (available on Riot Games’ official website and reported by Forbes)​forbes.com.
• VFX Apprentice Podcast – Interview with Arcane’s 2D FX Artist – An interview with Tom De Vis, a senior 2D FX artist on Arcane​vfxapprentice.com, where he discusses creating hand-drawn visual effects for the show. This gives perspective on how those stunning 2D effects were approached in a 3D pipeline.

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