Nia (AEG)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Nia is a fictional standard gauge tank locomotive created by Andrew Brenner and Ian McCue with the help from The Royal African Society.

Nia first appeared in the first series episode Thomas Blasts Off, which first aired in 2021.

Unlike in the original series, Nia has two separate actresses in the English dub of the reboot; she is voiced by Sade Smith in the UK dub, who portrays her with a British accent, while in the US dub, she is voiced by Talia Evans with an American accent.

Compared to the original series, the reboot portrays Nia explicitly as a child-like character, a depiction reinforced by the scale of her design. She also received much more character development than her original counterpart.

2D animated rigs
Nia in All Engines Go uses a series of complicated 2D rigs created by Nelvana Studio. These rigs are made up of different assets, which can be stretched, squashed and posed to create the desired movements and poses. Nia's movements are handled by an animation team, with a posing team to create specific poses as required for certain shots.

Nia's 2D design has undergone many changes from the design used in the original series:
 * She lost the trailing wheels under her cab, making her a 2-6-0 rather than a 2-6-2.
 * Thomas & Friends: Adventures! and the 2022 Wooden Railway range also depicted Nia with a 2-6-0 chassis.
 * She is much smaller and shorter in length, becoming similar in scale to Kana.
 * Her number is now a more simple and blocky design.
 * Her name that was painted on her tanks were removed.
 * While it is unknown the exact reason for this change, it is most likely so that the English names for the characters will not appear in other dubs.
 * Her cab doors have been removed.
 * The external tanks on her boiler have been removed.
 * The rivets on her bufferbeam, pistons, and cab have been removed.
 * Her brakepipes have disappeared.
 * She no longer has a visible whistle, making her the only steam engine in the series to not have one.
 * She now has brown irises.
 * The pump on the front of her tank switches sides depending on which direction she is facing.
 * She has only three windows at the front of her cab, the horizontal window being located in the center of its original boundaries. Her cab windows are also longer and narrower.
 * She no longer speaks with an African accent in the English dubs.
 * She has a new whistle which is a stock sound effect.

Voice Actresses

 * Sade Smith
 * Talia Evans
 * Malia Cea
 * Leslie Gil
 * Luciana Mauri
 * Consuelo Díaz
 * Raíssa Buena
 * Catherine Hanotiau
 * Emily Seubert
 * Maria Hengst
 * Annevig Schelde Ebbe
 * Gulla Martine Lia Normoen
 * Emelie Claisen
 * Annituuli Kasurinen
 * Polyniki Varakli
 * Kira O'Neil
 * Korina Dolmány-Bogdányi
 * Eliška Jirotková
 * Radoslava Stoyanova
 * Andrei Rușanian
 * Ivana Tenjović
 * Kristina Habuš
 * Noa Kashpitzki
 * Lee Dal-lae
 * Erina Koga
 * Agnese Marteddu