Dreams of working in character design comes true.
Courtesy Photo - Malia Wade
Wade's senior photo.
Senior Malia Wade will be attending college in the fall at Savannah College of Art and Design. She will be majoring in Character & Concept Digital Design which consists of designing and drawing characters which will later hopefully be picked up by a company and brought to the big screen.
“Around when I was seven I had a thing for doodling but when I reached middle school Disney movies took an amazing toll on my life,” Wade said. “I’ve wanted to do something in the field since I was 14 or 15.”
Wade also attended the Seacoast School Of Technology and took part in the Digital Media Arts program. Her teacher Kristine Groleau said she was so proud of Melia when she was accepted into college but said she was “absolutely not surprised.”
Wade said when she got accepted into the program it came to great shock to her and she said she even thought it “was a prank” at first.
“I was so proud of myself and my family was especially proud of me because they knew what it would do for me and how much it took me to get where I am today,” Wade said. “It was just amazing and definitely life changing and an eye opener.
The college program will consist of two major things: concept art and story
boarding according to Wade.
“Concept art is when you create different characters in many different poses a
nd expressions, the goal is to keep making these characters until the company or whatever industry you work for is satisfied with a design,” Wade said. “Storyboarding is putting frames together without the animation piece. What I would do is I would make frame by frame images for the 2D or 3D artists.”
Wade found inspiration from many different artists but said especially from online artists and Disney Channel. Courtesy Photo - Malia Wade
Self Portrait drawn by Wade
“There was a lot of inspiration from artists online like Instagram or Facebook. They always had really cool characters which inspired me to make my own comic book one day,” Wade said. “I would also say that the proud family from Disney Channel was also a big inspiration for me.”
Wade said her favorite part of designing characters is just bringing something to life.
“Since I was young I had a big open mind, and always thinking about characters coming to life and watching them go on the big screen was always exciting for me,” Wade said. “Even now when I do get that far and work for a company I know for a fact it's going to be so cool to see the form that they put them in and how they look on the big screen.”
Wade said another favorite part for her is criticism. She said she is able to take it really well and in the end just makes her a better artist.
Groleau said she will miss all of Wade's amazing qualities, especially her “sharp and creative mind.” She said she is very excited for Wade's future and can’t want to see how far she goes.
“She was so kind and respectful to me and everyone one else she encountered,” Groleau said. “I hope she comes and visits, and shares her wealth of experience, wisdom and journey with future SST students.”
According to Wade in the future she hopes to become a professional concept and character design artist.
“I just love the excitement that the character would bring to a movie or show and what they will be doing,” Wade said. “What I do is just make expressions but I don't know what the developers will be doing with the character on set or on screen. It's always just fun to think about what they will do with the character I create. “