By Chaison Peyton
Since his youth, Brandon Crews has been a fan of art and animation; he would draw pictures of characters from the Mickey Mouse cartoons for fun, and watched the first Toy Story movie when it first released in theaters in the year of 1995. This would spark his original intent of pursuing a career in the field of animation.
During his career, Crews has worked on first-person shooters for iOS devices, and has animated for games, including recording motion capture for Epic Games’ Fortnite.
Since 2008, Crews has taken up a career in teaching game design and digital art.
“I like teaching other people what I enjoy, know and I’ve learned,” he said. “So, I get a lot of enjoyment out of actually just seeing other people learn what I know, and then seeing their excitement.”
Crews earned his undergraduate degree from East Carolina University in animation and interactive design, then his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts before moving to North Carolina, Raleigh. Crews was initially born in Tarboro, NC. However, according to him, Raleigh offers more opportunities for game development and animation.
In Crews’ words, Raleigh is “a larger hub for game development and animation,” and “there were more opportunities for collaboration and work in the industry.”
Attending NC State University, Crews studied animation in media, and earned his Master’s degree in Art and Design. Afterward, Crews would work on animations for medical fields, marketing tech companies that would present how their products worked and animation cinematics for the local businesses. However, the up-and-coming visual-designer discovered that his passion was in gaming.
“I like a wide variety of games,” he said. “I play games that–or try to–offer a challenge, and I also play story-driven games, such as Uncharted, Grand Theft Auto, and the types of games that give you a lot of choices in them.”
Crews’ interest in the field of game development was influenced by Jesse Schell–a game designer, and a professor of game design who would educate Crews on lessons revolving around the mechanics of game design.
In his job as a professor, Crews instructs students in various projects such as computer and 2d animation, recording stop motion, the animation and design in the 3d modeling of characters and environments, programming and coding.
A method Crews uses in his teachings is providing visual aids to the class: along with him demonstrating the lessons of the different lessons, providing a hands-on experience, Crews plays videos of the class subjects being explained and displayed in action. He would then save these videos on the class website as a reference.
Crews’ assistant professor, Roger Christman, describes this method as “asynchronous learning”.
“Students … can be learning and understanding … then have access to these different video modules that help teach the individual issues and subjects that they’re working on in the classroom”, said Christman. “So a student can work on that outside of the classroom.”
Descriptions of Crews state him as a patient professor who shows passion for his work and that of his students, understanding that their knowledge with the educated topics varies by
experience. Therefore, he makes an effort to ensure everyone has a good understanding of the material provided.
“He’s very enthusiastic about what he teaches … He’s very patient with students,” said Christman. “When you teach in the technology field … you have a lot of students who have a lot of different experiences, some who do not have much experience and some who have … more experience. So having a professor who can keep the class moving along … Yet, be patient with those who are just learning.”
Brandon Crews, *himself*, is trying to keep up with today’s advancements of technology.
“Technology is ever changing,” he said. “Material stuff in the Unreal Engine … It’s recently changed how it’s performed and used, so I have to keep up with what’s modern … students want to learn everything that’s going on in game design down to the new techniques, software and abilities that we can incorporate within games.”
So far, Crews has expressed desire to continue teaching at William Peace University, admiring the school and the efforts made by SGD students.
“I love teaching here. We have great students that challenge the projects that I give them and go above and beyond kind,” he said.
As for future projects, Crews has intentions of expanding his knowledge and usage of the ever changing technology available to him in order to create new and better content.
“Some projects I’m working on with Unreal Engine … animation and particle systems,” he said. “I had to do more … and do more character animations as these new techniques come up. So I’m always trying to challenge myself and come up with something I haven’t done before.”
Crews, also, mentions networking, saying it is “important in an industry like this. It allows me to be able to learn more from other people …I know I don’t know everything about the field that I work in … So I always like to communicate with other professors at other universities and professionals within the industry.”
Professor Brandon Crews, too, is a student in his field, still learning to better benefit aspiring workers in the gaming and virtual field just like him.