Simplicity of shape

I am recently reading some books and interviews featuring an Artist/Sculptor/Designer, Toru Narita.
He is probably best known as the character designer for original 60' TV series "Ultraman" and "Ultraseven". Although there seems to be some controversy regarding the given credit for who really created the final design of that massive, legendary hero of all-time in Japan, it is apparent that Narita was one of the masterminds and was responsible for not only the individual monster concept design but also general art direction of the entire show.
Because wings of his imagination spread way out beyond my reach, I cannot understand all of hidden meaning of shape among his creation yet(I am sure each shape has meaning to be there in his creation, though), but it is fascinating to see and analyze this amazing heritage from the great artist. He prohibited himself to just pick and enlarge existing animals to create monsters, was always extremely strict to find a unique design which often formed in a quite simple shape.



I am NOT comparing my little experience here with monster master Narita, but it reminds me of the period when I was working at a humble sized, yet very creative CG studio "Sprite Animation" from 2005 to 2007 where trying to establish extremely simplified look as their signature style in multiple projects back then.
I was responsible on comprehensive character design there, but for the first couple of months I honestly had a hard time designing within their method, finding suitable, strong shapes without using too much textures and details. Although "simplicity" is not necessary a brand new concept in 2D animation, it was not as easy as it sounded when you added one more dimension. Shape could be boring, predictable and sluggish mass easily, would look like made in half budget if you were not careful and precise. Meanwhile, when a shape seems to look cool from one angle, it doesn't mean it could hold the same strength or even could make sense logically in space. We were so focusing on "shapes" and "planes/plane changes" that designers were requested to be capable creating 3D shapes with a strict skill on imaginary "sculpting" beyond a drawing on paper. We occasionally had severe arguments to take or not to take a single plane off of a character model through trial and error, but after a while we started realizing that it often did not need indecisive detail to whittle out strong shape, it is a bit like playing "Chess", trying to find the finest move toward "checkmate". Which was very interesting experience for me, especially after the previous film project which ended up with highly detailed 3D characters covered with nice fur coat.

Here is an example of their creation, "Monster Samurai" Sprite Animation's short which was selected for Annecy 2006.










































Images of "Monster Samurai" above: Copyright Sprite Animation Studios.
This was my first attend at the studio with this style in 2005. We had pushed the same approach more polished on later projects...


Requirements are different every time on each project and I do believe there should be unique, individual goals to accomplish on them, so please do not get me wrong, I am not trying to set any preconception here, but Narita's words feel pregnant to me as a character designer.

"New design will always appear in a simple shape. People tend to corrupt design by making it complicated when they give up to contemplate." -Toru Narita(1929-2002)