Never say never: John Slowsky shows that you can learn new tricks and create new opportunities for yourself.(Knowledge & Career)(Interview)

According to John Slowsky, video games took an important step toward technical maturity two years ago with the release of the Xbox 360, followed by the PlayStation 3. "It was like night and day what you could push through the pipes," says the veteran video game art director. "The explosion of storage capacity opened the door to more drama and meaning through character animation."

It was 2005 and Slowsky, who works as a freelancer, had already scored high as the art director on the much-lauded Van Helsing, Battlestar Galactica, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy games. Facing the medium's newfound potential and increasingly discriminating audience, Slowsky understood that his creative edge, going forward, rested on his ability to draw stronger, more expressive performances from his artists.

Slowsky's wife, Phelan Sykes, a successful video game art director in her own right, was already studying at Animation Mentor, an online school she had discovered. Despite her years as a production artist, she was challenged by the school's program, which was designed from the ground up by animators from Pixar and ILM, and by its instructors, all of whom are working studio animators at Sony Pictures Imageworks, DreamWorks Animation SKG, Blue Sky Studios, and other well-known facilities.

Attending Class

Slowsky, who is 54 years old and has been working in the video game industry for 16 years, also signed up for the 18-month program, which uses Web 2.0 technologies to take animation education beyond the limits of time and geographic location. Students are placed under the wing of six different studio mentors, who personally critique all the assignments and offer guidance and advice.

Each week, Animation Mentor's students download rich media lectures featuring the latest topic and assignment, filmed documentary-style with industry leaders; the students also gather virtually in small, real-time, interactive classes led by their mentor and using Web conferencing technologies. Additionally, they log on to a thriving online campus and social network, where they maintain personal pages with blogs and vlogs, view one another's mentor critiques, and chat.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]