Legendary Artistry

more to support the experience of the player, and make sure that everything creatively that happens with the world and the characters is built in service of the connection between the game and that player,” Yee points out. Adjusting to animation pipelines and solving production problems also required the crew to find its own solutions wherever possible, Linke says. “It was a very elaborate process, because we really always had to find our own answer,” he says. “It just didn’t really work out-of-the-box for production on Arcane.” Linke says Fortiche was a clear choice for an animation partner, citing their previous collaborations, the look of the studio’s work, and the attention its work shows to aspects like camera work. “Their choices for camera were always a bit more daring,” Linke says. The result ran counter to the traditional animation approach of prioritizing clarity, but opened things up to other possibilities. “Can we do more here? Can we have a certain choice, especially for the camera, where it says more about the characters, or it adds a certain dynamic feeling to it, or has a certain kind of creative statement? That was always very, very important to (Fortiche), and was something that I think a good amount of people that we had in L.A. had to get used to, but also started to fall in love with over time.” And there’s no more proof that the animation field has taken to that approach than the nine Annie noms and other accolades the show has received. For Linke and Yee, it couldn’t be a better introduction to the animation world. “It feels like the chill side of Hollywood,” Yee says. ”It’s a really fun community to be engaged with.” ◆

The first season of Arcane is currently streaming on Netflix.