The Sessions program

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design Launches New Accredited Game Art Certificate Program

the leader in online education in visual communications, has responded to the growing demand for video game industry professionals by developing an to prepare emerging talent for this cutting-edge area of media design.

According to the curriculum developers at Sessions, the program was created with one objective in mind-to prepare their students to break into game development.

"We're really looking to make graduates of this Certificate Program a steady supply of new talent to the industry," says Doris Granatowski, Sessions CEO. "Students in this program will not only benefit from focused, strategic coursework, but also one-to-one mentoring from some of the top game artists and developers in the business."

Classes are structured around demanding but practical projects that mirror current practices in game art development. For instance, some projects include working with primitives, creating complex inorganic models, character modeling, texturing, animation studies, and exporting a scene.

Additionally, since many of today's top games are created in Autodesk Maya, the program focuses on mastering this powerful tool for 3D content creation. Maya courses teach the technical skill that designers need to master all their modeling, animation, texturing, and rendering in order to develop animated 3D characters and environments that can be exported for team and faculty review. The practitioners who make up the Sessions faculty critique all coursework on a one-on-one basis, helping each student hone their finished work to a professional level.

The Sessions program is also unique for focusing on traditional art skills that industry pros agree are a critical component of professional 3D artwork. Course electives include video game history, game analysis and criticism, and character rigging, as well as broader topics such as digital photography, color theory and figure drawing.

Reflecting the collective opinion of the game industry professionals on the Sessions faculty, the most valuable aspect of the program is the creation of a job-search ready reel-an animated demo of creative skill and technical ability condensed to a mere few minutes. Creative agencies look almost primarily at the show reel when hiring new talent, so the Sessions program is designed to ensure that all students emerge from the program prepared to present potential employers with their absolute best work.