The new trailer for Netflix's upcoming animated series Arcane has people talking about its eye-catching visuals, but what about the show makes its animation so unique? Arcane will be the first television series developed around characters from the popular online video game League of Legendsexploring the backstory of the explosively unhinged anarchist known as Jinx and her sister Vi. The show is directed by Ash Brannon, who worked on the story and animation for Pixar's Toy Story 2 and co-directed Surf's Up.

Vi and Jinx will be voiced by Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell, respectively. Steinfeld played the lead in Travis Knight's Bumblebee standalone film based on the Transformers character, in addition to Mattie Ross in 2010's True Grit and Petra Arkanian in Ender's Game. Purnell recently starred alongside Dave Bautista in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead and has also appeared in Kick-Ass 2Maleficent as the teenage version of the titular character, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Other League of Legends characters confirmed for Arcane include Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), Caitlyn (Katie Leung), Silco (Jason Spisak), and Viktor (Harry Lloyd).

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While League of Legends owner Riot Games is producing the new Netflix series, the beautiful animation for Arcane is actually being handled by a studio in Paris, France called Fortiche Production. The studio was created in 2009 and uses a combination of both 2D and 3D animation to create its signature mixed-media presentation. Fortiche has been closely linked with Riot Games for several years and is responsible for some of League of Legends' most visually stunning character and event trailers. including the debuts of Ekko and Arcane's main character Jinx. In creating the music video for "POP/STARS" by Riot's own virtual K-pop ensemble KD/A – a video that has been watched more than 450 million times on YouTube – the studio utilized keyframe animation done completely by hand.

Riot League of Legends Jinx Arcane Netflix

Fortiche has worked closely with some heavy-hitters outside of the video game industry as well, with each project adding to its visually stunning portfolio. In addition to its work with Riot Games, the studio created the music videos for the Imagine Dragon's song "Warriors" as well as Freak Kitchen's "Freak of the Week," which both feature a similar style of animation. In 2012, Fortiche teamed up with the artistically ambitious Gorillaz to produce a music video for their song "DoYaThing" during the virtual band's collaboration with Converse. Fortiche also handled the animation for the Disney XD series Rocket & Groot, its very first TV series, based on the Marvel characters from Guardians of the Galaxy.

The 9-episode series Arcane will be distributed evenly across three weeks, with the first act coming to Netflix on November 6. League of Legends is among the most popular video games of all time, with more than 100 million active users logging on every month. An animated series based on two of the game's most popular characters, especially one with such a distinctive look, is expected to attract a lot of attention for the streaming service upon arrival and could lead to Arcane spinoffs featuring more of the game's expansive library of characters down the line.

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