# The Kid Who Would Be King

> An animated prologue and illustrated prop book for The Kid Who Would Be King, Joe Cornish's modern-day King Arthur adventure.

Canonical page: [The Kid Who Would Be King](<https://gergely-wootsch.com/projects/the-kid-who-would-be-king>)

Project ID: gla\_kin

Year: 2019

Role: 3D Artist

I researched the look of the prop book, illustrated its pages with Guy Pérez, refined the character palettes and shapes, and developed the final look of the 3D characters.

Work: The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Production: [Glassworks Barcelona](<https://web.archive.org/web/20250513140103/https://glassworksvfx.com/>)

Glassworks Barcelona created an animated prologue and illustrated prop book for *The Kid Who Would Be King*, Joe Cornish’s 2019 modern-day King Arthur adventure. The illustrated legend takes its look from inexpensive, misprinted children’s books of the 1970s.

## The Sequence

[The Kid Who Would Be King: Animated Prologue](</media/video/gla_kin_edit.mp4>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

## Design

I researched the printing and illustration styles of 1970s children's books, then illustrated the prop's pages alongside Guy Pérez and the other illustrators.

[Illustrated map of Britain in the Age of King Arthur, with a king, shields, an owl and a sword rising from a lake.](</media/image/gla_kin_design_map1_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Blue illustrated map of Arthurian Britain, with Stonehenge, Tintagel and Glastonbury Abbey on shield panels.](</media/image/gla_kin_design_map2_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[A hand rises from a dark lake among reeds, holding a glowing sword upright.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_ladyofthelake2_xxl.webp>) — Lady of the Lake illustration. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[A boy in a red tunic stands on a stone among autumn trees, raising a sword.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_young_arthur_xxl.webp>) — Young Arthur illustration. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Book spread titled The Battle With Morgana, showing an army marching toward a fortress on a hilltop.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_castle_xxl.webp>) — Prop book spread. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Book spread titled The Lady of the Lake, with text beside an illustration of a hand holding a sword.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_ladyofthelake1_xxl.webp>) — Prop book spread. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Full dust jacket of The Knights of the Round Table, with a kneeling crowned king holding a sword on the front.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_alt_castle_xxl.webp>) — Early cover design. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Full dust jacket of The Knights of the Round Table, with five young knights in armour on the front.](</media/image/gla_kin_book_alt_cover_xxl.webp>) — Alternate cover design. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

## Characters

I did not design the characters but helped refine their color palettes and shapes. All of them were animated in 3D, with some extra line details, such as hair and capes, animated in 2D.

The characters began as 2D designs and were modeled in 3D. I then developed a rendering treatment to reproduce the printed lines and halftone shading.

[Black and white profile sketches of a boy and of King Arthur wearing a crown.](</media/image/gla_kin_design_king_arthur_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Front, three-quarter and side head studies of Morgana wearing a spiked golden crown.](</media/image/gla_kin_design_morgana_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Four flat color bars in cyan, magenta, yellow and black.](</media/image/gla_kin_cmyk_palette_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

I kept line layers separate from color layers in the final artwork and look development, giving us more control over the halftone treatment.

For the print patterns and misaligned colors, I also explored a 2D treatment in Photoshop: separating the renders into CMYK channels and shifting them against one another.

[Four heads of a crowned king: black line art, then yellow, magenta and cyan halftone layers.](</media/image/gla_kin_bts2.gif>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[The Kid Who Would Be King: Character Turnarounds](</media/video/gla_kin_turnarounds.mp4>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Two full-length costume designs of Arthur and Uther in armour, crowns and red capes.](</media/image/gla_kin_design_king_arthur_uther_xxl.webp>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

## Stills

[A young knight in a red tabard stands with sword and shield on a battlefield at sunset.](</media/image/gla_kin_styleframe1_xxl.webp>) — Styleframe for the prologue. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Two armored knights clash swords on a battlefield, one holding a blue shield with gold dragons.](</media/image/gla_kin_styleframe2_xxl.webp>) — Styleframe for the prologue. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[A crowned king in armour faces a ring of raised swords between two stone towers.](</media/image/gla_kin_styleframe3_xxl.webp>) — Styleframe for the prologue. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

## Making Of

[The Kid Who Would Be King: Making of the Prologue](</media/video/gla_kin_bts.mp4>) (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Photoshop window showing a purple 3D head model of Morgana beside a line sketch.](</media/image/gla_kin_bts1.gif>) — Morgana 3D model in Photoshop. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

[Grid of forty grayscale storyboard thumbnails showing knights, swords and Morgana.](</media/image/gla_kin_thumbnails_xxl.webp>) — Storyboard thumbnails. (Glassworks Barcelona for Twentieth Century Fox)

## Links

More on Glassworks' website.

- [Project on glassworksvfx.com](<https://web.archive.org/web/20250711120058/https://glassworksvfx.com/works/tkwwbk-prologue>)

## Credits

- Written and Directed By: [Joe Cornish](<https://www.instagram.com/mrjoecornish>)
- Production Company: Glassworks Barcelona
- Prologue Director: [Javier Verdugo](<https://www.javier-verdugo.com/>)
- Executive Producer: Duncan Buxton
- Producer: [Belén Palos](<https://www.instagram.com/belen.palos>)
- Production Coordinator: Sara Camacho Gutiérrez
- 3D Animation Lead: [Hugo García](<https://www.hugo-garcia.com/>)
- 3D Artists: [Abner Marin](<https://www.artstation.com/faraguay>), Julio Lorenzo, [Gergely Wootsch](<https://gergely-wootsch.com>), [Carlos Cortés](<https://carloscortes.tv/>), Marc Gual, Joan Guasch, Victor Vinyals, Kiko Navarro, Marco Rossi, Rob van den Bragt, Tiaan Franken, Pol Soler, Kornel Makarowicz
- 2D Animation Lead: [Pablo Navarro](<https://pablonavarro.wordpress.com/>)
- 2D Artists: Javi Vaquero, Richard Anderson, Ezequiel Cruz, Guy Pérez, Jérémy Baudry, Amanda Garcia, Juliette Oberndorfer, Libardo Bohórquez, Luis Gaspardo, Macarena Ortega, Margarita Rojas, Marion Louw, Oscar Carambano, Pere Hernández, Toni Sala, Eva Puyuelo, Hugo Perdiz, Heidi Stohr, Bey Rodríguez
- Digital Compositors: Carlos de la Sotilla, Roberto Garcia, Dani López, Albert García, Karen Weiss
- Flame: Dani Granado
- Colorist: Pepin Pedraza
- Making Of By: Maria Medinilla
- Visual Effects By: Glassworks
- Executive Producer: Duncan Buxton
- Producer: Joe Billington
- Data Wrangler: Martin Wheeler
- Compositing Supervisor: Duncan Malcolm
- Compositing Supervisor: Mark Harris
- Visual Effects Artists: Mark Harris, Davide Uccellani, Duncan Malcolm, Julian Johnson, Leanne Pletersky, Heriberto Penche, Richard Russell, Ephraim Mkwandu, Sacha Danjou, Stephanie Joy