Animag’s 2020 Rising Stars of Animation feature also honors Sunil Hall, Co-Creator/Executive Producer of The Mighty Ones for DreamWorks Animation, whose first long-term job was as prop designer on Nickelodeon’s My Life as a Teenage Robot, Katie Rice, Director, Animaniacs for Warner Bros. Animation/Hulu, who worked on El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and credits Nickelodeon's original Nicktoons as inspiring her to pursue a career in animation, and Priscilla Wong, Visual Development Artist on Trolls World Tour for DreamWorks Animation, who counts Hey Arnold!, Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants as some of her earliest influences!
Animation Magazine will profile each of their 14 2020 Rising Stars of Animation honorees in their April 2020 issue. The 14 women and men come from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. What they share is a passion for the art and craft of animation and storytelling, deep respect for the trailblazers before them and a burning desire to make a difference in their specific field of expertise.
A huge congratulations to Niki López, Sunil Hall, Katie Rice, Priscilla Wong, and everyone honored in Animation Magazine's 2020 Rising Stars of Animation feature! You can read more about each honoree at animationmagazine.net.
Santiago of the Seas (formerly The Swashbuckling Adventures of Capitán Calavera) is a interactive animated series that follows the adventures of 8-year-old Santiago Montes, a brave and kind-hearted pirate, as he embarks on daring rescues, searches for treasures and keeps the high seas safe from villains in a fantastical Caribbean world. The series is created by Niki Lopez, Leslie Valdes and Valerie Walsh Valdes (Dora the Explorer), and infused with a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum. Nickelodeon announced the series (20 episodes) during Nickelodeon Upfront 2018.
Niki López
Creator/Producer, Santiago of the Seas, Nickelodeon
A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Niki López put a lot of her own cultural heritage and background into the world of Nickelodeon’s upcoming series Santiago of the Seas. The colorful toon, which is infused with a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum, centers on the adventures of a brave and kind-hearted pirate who searches for treasures and keeps the high seas safe from villains.
López, who grew up watching Disney movies such as Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, says she was also deeply influenced by the 1992 feature FernGully: The Last Rainforest. “I guess that inspired the little environmentalist in me as a kid,” she says. “I studied illustration and computer animation at Ringling, and I really wanted to further develop my skills and dig deeper into doing creative work, but I was open to anything.”
After a brief stint in advertising, López decided to really start exploring her options in animation. A meeting with a Nickelodeon recruiter at an animation event led to her landing an internship at the studio in 2009. “I grew up a Nickelodeon kid and the energy and personality of the studio really resonated with me, so I really wanted to be part of it,” she recalls.
The internship led to gigs on Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, The Fairly OddParents and Harvey Beaks. “I was really inspired by what edgy and fun shows the preschool team was working on. Because the studio has an open-door pitching policy from the staff, I decided to pitch them some ideas, too. After all, what was the worst that could happen? I even took a month’s sabbatical and traveled to Puerto Rico and New Orleans to get the right inspirations for the pitch.”
The development execs at Nick really liked her pitch, and Lopez’s show is set to debut on the cabler later this year. “I am really proud of how cinematic the series looks,” she admits. “I love the rich greens and blues, and how the colors are so vibrant and dynamic.” She also says that she has learned a lot of great lessons along the way. “As a first-time showrunner, you discover that there are lots of challenges, but they can be huge lessons to help you in the future,” says the wise and brilliant 35-year-old artist. “The most important thing is to trust your gut. It’s easy to get off track and forget the reason you decided to do something in the first place. Animation is a team effort, but you have to make sure that your voice doesn’t get lost. Always be open to collaboration, but don’t lose sight of the real core of your vision.”
From Latin Heat:
Niki Lopez: Running The Show At Nickelodeon
Selected by Variety To Its 10 Animators to Watch in 2018
By Justina Bonilla
Nickelodeon is a pioneer of children’s television, especially with trailblazing Latino themed programs, such as Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Tiana, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, and The Casagrandes. Another animated Latino oriented program to join this esteemed class of Nickelodeon programming, is Santiago of the Seas, by one of Nickelodeon’s newest showrunner, Niki Lopez.
Lopez gained attention within the animation industry as an up and coming talent and in 2018 was recognized as a part of Variety’s esteemed list of 10 Animators to Watch. Recently, she was also listed in Animation Magazine’s Rising Stars of Animation in April 2020.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Lopez had a profound love and fascination with animation, especially on television. As a child Lopez loved television especially Nickelodeon, identifying as a “Nick Brat”. Her favorite Nickelodeon programs including Rocko’s Modern Life, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
At a young age, Lopez unknowingly began crafting her talent for animation by doodling on paper a world of characters with backstories. She carried on this talent into her education, obtaining her BFA in Illustration from the private Ringling College of Art and Design of Florida. After working as a graphic designer for an ad agency and as a freelance Inker and colorist, she went to pursue her passion for animation with Nickelodeon.
In 2010, Lopez began her career at Nickelodeon as an intern, aka a “Nicktern”. From this experience, she became a full-time production assistant for two years on the animated show Kung fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. She then worked for five years on a variety of animated shows, including The Fairly OddParents as a color designer.
At Nickelodeon, Lopez was inspired by the “Edgy and fun shows the preschool team was working on and it’s open-door pitching policy,” Lopez said. Taking advantage of that, Lopez pitched a few ideas which were turned down. This would lead her to fine tune the pitch that would make her a first-time showrunner on Santiago of the Seas.
Santiago of the Seas, centers around 8-year-old Santiago Montes, a brave and kind-hearted pirate and his swashbuckling adventures. The series is created by Niki Lopez, Leslie Valdes and Valerie Walsh Valdes (Dora the Explorer) is set to premiere later this year on Nick Jr. as a 20-episode preschool program with a mix of education in Latino-Caribbean culture (Puerto Rico, Dominican, and Cuban) with a Spanish-language curriculum.
Although Puerto Rico is a United States territory, with well known Puerto Rican celebrities (Rita Moreno, Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Bruno Mars), many still do not know much about the Puerto Rican culture. What Dora the Explorer and The Casagrandes have done by representing the Mexican culture, Lopez hopes to do the same with Santiago of the Seas for Latino-Caribbean culture.
One of the ways Lopez highlight the culture is by introducing the deliciousness of Puerto Rican Food. Santiago of the Seas audiences will be introduced to piragua, a shaved ice Puerto dessert and other mouthwatering Puerto Rican foods will make an appearance, such as bacalaito (fried codfish), arroz con gandules (rice and pigeon peas), and Mofongo (fried plantains).
“Santiago of the Seas as an opportunity empower more underrepresented voices. Not just from one perspective, it’s diverse, and that includes the Afro-Latino perspective,” Lopez siad. “The cultural influences that exist in Puerto Rico wouldn’t exist if we didn’t include the African side. All that is being shown through the show.”
Stressing the importance of children seeing authentic voices they can relate to, Lopez worked to, “Make sure the characters are aspirational. And that when little kids see the show and see these characters, [they] see themselves in them. They see a friend.”
“Little kids are agent of change,” Lopez noted. “And, it is our responsibility as content creators to give them the tools and the examples to go out there and care about the community. [To] stand up for what’s rights and learn to respect everybody.” She talked about her instilling in the kides a need to be “good people”. Especially now, “We need to champion kindness…it’s so important,” Lopez told us.
LXiA is a Signature Program of LFI that focuses on empowering diversity in Animation, VFX, and Gaming Features Nikki Lopez
Pouring her heart and soul into Santiago of the Sea, Lopez has created an animation gem waiting to glisten. With the amount of sincerity and talent she possesses, there is no doubt this rising star will shine through, going where her imagination can take her.
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More Nick: Nickelodeon Upfront 2020 Roundup!
Originally published: Saturday, March 21, 2020.
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