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Inside Notes from: Disney Visual developer, Art Director, Producer/designer - Mehrdad Isvandi

Updated: Mar 1, 2023

Mehrdad Isvandi has worked on many great films, including Encanto, Strange World, Moana, and many more.

He was born at the Iranian borders in a time of war, with a view that his life was like a film. He embraced the quote "The wound is the place where the light enters you."

Mehrdad started as a graphic design student where he realized he struggled with dyslexia. He then moved to the US at the age of 27 to learn the visual language of cinema. He felt like a teenager starting a new life and took the opportunity to change who he was, with the confidence that no one knew him and had no expectations to fill.

When conceptualizing art, it is best to start with paper as it is the closest link to the idea. Then move to Cintiq for final matte paintings, which makes up only about 5% of all the work. The other 95% is rough sketches.

When storyboarding, it is good practice to familiarize yourself with the environment you plan to work in. Sometimes super basic 3D models can be helpful.


Larger studios often send out artists and producers to relevant locations to collect reference, culture, and the essence to be accurate to the region.


In Strange World, the characters venture over various regions, each with its own color palette to differentiate between them. For this film, no green color was used for the underworld environment, while the characters wore green to stand out and seem out of place in this strange world.

When conceptualizing shots in layout, the story takes priority over the environment in most shots. If a shot is overstimulating and beautiful, it distracts the viewer from the story, and they don't connect with the character as much.

Being a visual developer usually involved about three meetings a week. As a production designer, Mehrdad had about 16 meetings a day, with the added responsibility of managing a team.

"People make the Jobs" - regardless of where you work, having a great team makes it more worthwhile.

A useful tool during Zoom calls is being able to draw over the screen for easy feedback/notes.

Having a good work ethic and focusing on one skill increases your chances of landing a job.

Utilizing VR in concept art can be a much faster tool as you can sketch out a scene that you can view from every angle.

Production assistants are really helpful as they help bridge the communication between staff and producers. For example, if a producer needs a shot edited, the production assistant finds the artist and passes on the information.

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