#3 - THE PROCESS OF ARCANE

One of the things I want to talk about before talking about the big stuff coming up is all the visual art. And of course, the big question: Is Arcane CGI or drawn?

Hmm… if you have watched Arcane, I’m completely sure that in some moments you’ll have lost sense of what was happening because you were too occupied admiring all the details and colors that were coming up on the screen. And I understand because that happened to me :) Well, this is all because the magnificent people working behind it. They make sure that every frame, every time you pause it, it’s a bit of concept art, a beautiful illustration. Talking seriously right now, whether you have watch it or not, Arcane took six loooong years to create. Maybe you have the jaw on the floor but yeah, this is true. Thank God they have a profit of one billion dollars after spending twenty-one million dollars in it. I mean, the hard work has paid off very well.

 

Here some screenshots of the show where you can admire the art work:

Now, the answer to the big question is that while the series' extremely dark plot and established characters are a major drawcard, the animation in the series it's both hand-painted and computer animated, all framed within meticulous cinematography. Characters are modeled in three dimensions, but unlike typical productions of the style, all of Arcane's backgrounds are digitally hand-painted. In the YouTube docu-series called “Making of ARCANE: Bridging the Rift”, divided in five parts and that I have watched after watching the series, all the progress is explained.

 

Jérome, Fortiche Fouder: “We do a mix of 2D and 3D. Because the 2D effects are done in twelve images per second, then the animation, it’s twenty-four, like other movies, so you have a… mix of styles. It’s not anime, it’s not full CG… it’s a mix of everything”

What I have admired more of it is that very few games have adapted into film and television well, and both producers, animators and artists wanted to be respectful of players’ time and trust more than anything.

Arcane stands out mainly because of Fortiche’s organic art. Colors, forms, etc. And because the amazing dedication and patience that they have when working on a project. Imagine, only the first episode took ten months to animate. Every single month of the creation had a reason. They had to do concept art for characters and environments, 3D models of the characters and the objects, Animation tests, storyboards, writing, production schedule, voice actors, sound effects, music and much more.

 

Also, I discovered that they really stand out because of the camera work, like it’s hand-held and really human and real. And that they have used motion capture. Yeah, the technique that the franchise Avatar is using to make their movies. In this case, Arcane uses motion capture just for some moments and not all the series.

“Motion capture is used when you want to have some realistic animation and only that. The video references are really something that helps you capture something natural. Sometimes, you’ve got a shot to do and you can probably just go straight into the computer and you stuff, and it would work. But if you go into the ref room and you start recording yourself, you may end up having some little accident that you do that can be really interesting.” 

XOXO