Who is Who? Yashar Kassai - Kyle Smith

 Who is Who?

Yashar Kassai

 ^ Yashar Kassai 
Yashar Kassai is a concept artist who has worked for films like Into the Spiderverse, Michells vs the Machines and The Angry Birds Movie. The reason why I chose Yashar Kassai is because he has helped to create my favourite movie and one of the most influential animated movies, Spiderman Into the Spiderverse. I can't describe how much Into the Spiderverse has affected my life and how it will affect it going forward, but writing about someone that you has inspired you with their work is always better than doing it about someone who hasn't. Yashar hasn't just inspired me with Spiderverse but with Michells vs the Machines as that is a movie I have high regards for. 
 ^Yashar Kassai

About Yashar Kassai:

Yashar Kassai is a concept artist while being mainly a production designer the difference. Yashar Kassai has been in the industry for 16 years, with his earliest work being Open Season 2 in 2008. Yashar Kassai was only a matte painter within that movie and was a matte painter until 2010 with the film Modnation Racers which he was visual development. He has not been a matte painter since 2010 with the work Rabbid Rider. His most recent work was in the 2023 film Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. He got a job at Sony Animations in 2016, so around 2010 to 2016, he was more of a freelancer doing work for films like Book of Life (2014) and FreeBirds (2013). Yashar Kassai hasn't got much information about his age or personal life and after looking through his Facebook and Instagram, It seems like he keeps it strictly professional and within the industry that important. This is most beneficial if you are selling yourselves to directors and high ups to get a job working for a movie. Now, what's the difference between Visual Development and Concept Artist. Nothing. It's only different is one works for animated content like films and Movie and the other just games and live-action movies. 


The Art Of Yashar Kassai:

The art of Yashar Kassai is beautiful. The art work I have displayed within my essay is that from Yashar, and I cannot stop admiring it. His roughest work feels really loose and rugged, like the one next to this chunk of text. Yet it is still neat and clear, and I assume this is from years of experience, as the time Angry Birds came out in 2016 and his first work on Open Season 2 in 2008, that 8 years of doing work for films must have paid off. But if I want to be like Yashar, I will want and need to analyse and see how he could have pulled the piece together. My first idea while trying to be put into his shoes is a mood board and direction of what the piece should even be. It looks like the image is in an iron fortress, like an aircraft or castle; looking at the concept art, it looks like it's in a one-point perspective, so it must be a corridor. Being able to know how to draw this will need you to know how to approach. When doing a corridor, you would do one point, as it's all in one direction. Also approaching this, I would like a really rough sketch of the layout of the corridor without worrying about the perspective and do an initial sketch of each prop within the room. This is like trying each ingredient of a taco 
before putting it together so you get the idea and example of what you are wanting and want you may want to change. The use of just using greyscale is something I would also like to point out. I like using greyscale to see how my lighting would effect my piece, but I believe within his art he's using greyscale to separate materials like the metal frames and doors or the wood floor being different shades of grey and the vent not being as dark as the metal doors tell me; I could be another material. I really like this approach, and let me know that thinking about my materials is just as important. Within my final sheet, I would love to use that approach and find a way to differentiate the materials with grey scale or colour.

The Peers of Yashar Kassai

^ Alberto Mielgo
^ Yashar Kassai

For Yashar Kassai, I wanted to compare him to one of his peers within the team of Into the Spiderverse. So I wanted to compare with Alberto Mielgo. I chose the two artworks above this paragraph to compare. I would love to start by saying that they are concepts for two separate feels. But yet I feel like they are linked within the idea of making Spiderverse feel like a comic book. They are also linked with the signature Spiderman web swinging. One of the main differences within their work is the background. Even though these are pieces of concept, the Alberto Mielgo background has the commonly used Benday dots that a lot of comics used in the 1950s and 60s to use colour that would be not as expensive while making the art still look shaded in. While Yashar Kassai used a comic panel to create the idea of it being a comic book and almost makes the audience read the film without realising it. This is an obvious difference, but a more subtle difference is how Spider-Man is drawn. Spider-Man, drawn by Yashar Kassai, is more closely related to the style of the movie, while Alberto Mielgo may also be looking like the movie; he looks more like an action figure, and the costume feels a lot more baggier, while Yashar Kassai's costume feels tight. I feel like these two are experts at their crafts.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Yashar Kassai helped produce my favourite movie of all time and helped produce other pieces of media I love, and I would love to take away how he uses colour/greyscale to differentiate the materials, and using variety of detail concept art is something I would like to explore as well, and that it doesn't matter how good the concept art actually is, but how clear what is wanted within the art might be the most important thing when it comes to communication within concept art.

Harvard Reference:
Info about Yashar:
Yashar Kassai, 2024, Portfolio. Art Station: Epic Games, https://www.artstation.com/ykassai. 3rd November 2024
Yashar Kassai, 2024, Yashar-Kassai Official Website: Yashar Kassai, https://yashar.cc/Various. 3rd November 2024
Yashar Kassai, 2024, Yashar Kassai. Zerply: Taaniel Jakobs, https://zerply.com/yashar. 3rd November 2024
Yashar Kassai, 2024, Yashar Kassai. LinkedIn: Mircosoft, https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashar-kassai-120851a/ 3rd November 2024
Imdb, 2024, Yashar Kassai. Imbd: Amazon,https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4480753/. 3rd November 2024
Yashar Kassai, 2019, Yashar Kassai. Facebook: Meta Platforms Inc, https://www.facebook.com/ykassai. 3rd November 2024
Alberto Mielgo, 2024, Alberto Mielgo.https://www.albertomielgo.com. 3rd November 2024

Concept art /visual development:
Dylan Choonhachat, 2019, What's the difference between concept art, development art and Illustration. Dylan Choonhachat: Dylan Choonhachat https://dylanchoonhachat.com/blog/2020/1/11/what-is-the-difference-between-concept-art-visual-development-and-illustration#:~:text=Generally%20the%20term%20“concept%20artist,are%20essentially%20the%20same%20jobs. 3rd November 2024.

Benday Dots:
Art History Glossary, 2024, Ben-Day Dots. Art History Glossary: Creative Common CChttps://blog.stephens.edu/arh101glossary/?glossary=ben-day-dots#:~:text=Ben-Day%20dots%20were%20used,Roy%20Lichtenstein. 3rd November 2024

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