WorkDocs - The 7th Circle (Patreon)

There’s something about Harry

Harry first entered the stage a few years ago in a short story called The Temple. The series depicts the exploration of a mysterious temple by a huge, bulky red-haired bloke. In this adventure, the hero enters ruinous corridors and decaying dungeons, where he has a close encounter with large, alien phallus-like serpents. Although assaulted by many of these slimy and creepy creatures, he fully enjoys the engagement, for the main purpose of these virile tentacles appears to be to please their prey in endless coiling and constricting orgy of sensual pleasure. At the end of the encounter Harry only seems to be craving for more satisfaction and in each new chapter, from Genesis to Ad Fundum to the inner regions of the 7th Circle, he digs deeper into the darkness of the doomed Temple. 

Right from the start, these series became by far the most popular on my site. No other series counts so many page viewers and no other post has been shared so many times, curiously enough even by quite a few straight bloggers. It seems that for many this theme is something of a dream coming true, "who hasn't thought about it?" and I wonder how many men actually have this kind of fantasy. 

But it’s not only the subject that has drawn a lot of attention, for no other character has received so many positive comments as well. Harry seems to be a real eye-catcher and I´ve literally received hundreds of remarks concerning his hunky posture, massive physique, and always noting the flamboyant color of his hair. It appears that red is really hot! 

Apart from that, many fans have sent me names and images of lookalikes, so that by now I have an elaborate collection of ginger headed doppelgangers. The most obvious or striking of these are of course the actor Chris Pratt (not exactly ginger, but yes), porn actor Seth Fornea (Colt Studio, close enough), fitness model Caylan Hughes (seems to be the real deal) and above all, and that´s the remark that always comes up, “He looks like Prince Harry!” 

Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you all, especially the fans from the UK, for the character is not based on Prince Harry. He’s not an oversized version of the prince on the white horse nor some other buffed up gay royalty. He’s actually based on a DAZ3D model called Braxton and in the catalog he’s referred to as a “beautiful Irish inspired redhead.” However, after referring to him so many times as the guy-that-looks-like-Harry or as “Harry” in my many replies, at the end the name Harry finally tuck. So, I guess his full name is Harry Braxton and, for your information, he seems to be from Ireland. 

However, his hyper-masculine features are mainly based on the wonderful illustrations of the Holy Nights, a set of characters for a role-playing game called Dungeon Guards, created by an artist named Silencio. I´m not really into video games and I don´t know if this project was ever completed - after 2014 Silencio turned silent - but I find his drawings really magnificent. 

The guys have awesome physiques, with massive shoulders and limbs, and their truly colossal member are covered by revealing waving loincloths or bizarrely shaped armor. All drawings are full of wonderful details and several characters are also redheads. I guess that these somehow stand out for their difference.  

So what is it with these redheads? According to Wikipedia cultural reactions have varied from ridicule to admiration and that many common stereotypes exist, often portraying them as fiery-tempered and highly sexed. In medieval beliefs, red hair was even thought to be a mark of a beastly sexual desire and moral degeneration - qualifications that I can only perceive as highly positive in the case of our hero.  On the other hand in the Iliad Achilles is sometimes referred to as red or tawny, in the Norse mythology the god Thor is usually described as having red hair and the Hebrew Torah implies that both King David and Esau had fiery red hair. 

So it seems our Harry is in good company and that, apart from standing out by the color of his hair, I do think his sex appeal really adds something extra to the spell of The Temple series. I’m therefore not at all convinced that any random buff male could have taken his place -  as some of you have suggested in your comments - and that there’s really something about Harry. But perhaps, like many of you, I've just fallen a bit in love with him as well...

Temple and tentacles 

The setting I used for all the series is based on a lovely model by Faveral that resembles an ancient Mayan tomb, called Ancient Prophecies. Initially, I wanted to create something like an underground pool with fountains, hence the dragon heads on the walls. The idea was that the hero would be drawn into the basin, where he would be swallowed up by an orgy of arms or tentacles, or something like that. 

Once the thought of a phallic tentacle pouring out of one of these fountain heads cam up, all the ideas for The Temple fell into place and the series was born. All water disappeared from the scene, the pool became a snake pit and the addition of some corridors completed the set. Large room bases on the same model with an endless amount of alien eggs surrounding the enlarged altar made the setting for the Ad Fundum series. The round pit surrounded by sculptures and the tomb in the middle completed the setting for the Dantesque 7th Circle. 

Harry in motion - into the next 3D dimension

At the time of completing The Temple, I also started experimenting with animation. An obvious choice perhaps, but I soon found out that it’s a very elaborate and time-consuming hobby. My first experiments were not a great success and it took ages for me to get some decent animation results. 

The first thing to do is to rig the model (to make each body part ready for animation) and my first experiment was to make a small walking cycle, the standard first steps in animation. That sounds simple enough, but to make Harry stroll smoothly forward with all those bulky limbs, and still look hot and hunky, was quite a challenge! However, after several failures and countless errors, he really seemed to come to life and in the end he started to walk around in splendid full monty.

Soon one small movement followed another, and after a while, I had enough material to compose a short animation. That was the beginning of the 7th Circle and at the moment, after three chapters of ca. 6 minutes each and starting with the last part of the series, I finally have the feeling that I´m getting the hang of it. The animating goes faster than ever and the movements start to look smoother and more natural than before.

A less obvious but ultimately far bigger challenge was to animate the snakes. I had already rigged the creatures for The Temple series, simply by rapping the body around in, what Cinema 4D calls, a Spline Wrap, and by adding several handles to control the different body parts. That worked perfectly for the stills, but to bring these creepy things to life in animation was a far bigger challenge. With each small motion of the head, some other parts started randomly to twist and turn, with very limited means to control its movements. 

To get several of these creatures to interact in some natural way with Harry - however that may look like - was at times sometimes truly exasperating. I guess it looks great in the final renderings, especially for what you cannot see, but I´m sure there´s a far better way to do this. So I´m still figuring out how to get more grip over these creatures and especially the Beast, the big boy that will go wild with our hero in the final chapter. 

They're still a lot I could tell you about Harry - about his model defects, his ambiguous sexuality (is he straight?) or the upcoming new adventures  - but I won't bore you any longer with more details. It's the action that counts, so I'll dedicate my time and energy to put him back in motion and I'm sure we're going to see a lot more of him in the near future.

In the WorkDocs post of next month, I'll be exploring the ins and outs of The Champion series. Who is the massive boxer? Which cartoon character was an inspiration for the main hero? Where do all those flying papers and books come from? What's that mirror about and what surprise does the baroque library have in store for the amorous couple? And finally, is the whole adventure just a dream?....

Related projects posts:

• Wallpaper - Apr 2017
• WorkDoc
• Gallery
• Add-Ons - Animation
• Add-Ons

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