FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SESSIONS ONLINE SCHOOLS OF ART AND DESIGN LAUNCHES NEW ACCREDITED GAME ART CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

Online game art education developed to help game artists
Break In! to game development.

New York – August 15, 2007 –Sessions, ( Sessions.edu – http://www.sessions.edu ) the leader in online education in visual communications, has responded to the growing demand for video game industry professionals by developing an exclusive certificate program to prepare emerging talent for this cutting-edge area of media design. ( http://gameart.sessions.edu )

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.

Members of the press may request additional information by contacting:

Scott Chappell
scott@sessions.edu
212-239-3080 x114

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About Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design
(www.sessions.edu) (gameart.sessions.edu)

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design, ( Sessions.edu ) offers courses and certificate programs in graphic design, Web design, multimedia, business marketing design, and digital arts.

Sessions was founded in 1997 with the goal of bringing new media design education to graphic and Web designers worldwide, through online education.

Once a pioneer and now a leader in the distance education industry, Sessions has delivered classes to students in over 100 countries. Sessions is accredited by the Distance Education Training Council (www.DETC.org) and the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools (MSCSS) and is the first of only two online schools licensed by the New York State Department of Education.

For more information contact:

Scott Chappell
scott@sessions.edu
(212) 239-3080 ext. 14