Animation examples from Northern Ireland and Ireland
The best-known animation examples from Northern Ireland and Ireland are broadcast and feature work: four Academy Award-nominated features made in Kilkenny and a run of Belfast and Derry children’s series, including Puffin Rock and Pablo, sold to broadcasters worldwide. For a business, the more useful examples are commercial formats such as explainers and training modules, each built around one measurable goal.
This page collects those examples for business owners and marketing managers who want to see what the island produces before they commission anything. It sits beside ProfileTree’s animation Belfast page, which sets out formats and prices for Northern Ireland businesses, and beside the overview of animation services across Ireland for buyers south of the border. Organisations planning staff or customer communications will find the commissioning detail in the guide to corporate animation in Northern Ireland.
Table of Contents
Broadcast and feature work shows what studios here can produce
The island’s reputation rests on children’s television and feature films, and that work is the clearest evidence of the skill available locally. The examples below are publicly released productions, included to show the standard of craft in the region; none of them is ProfileTree work.
Feature films made in Kilkenny
Four animated features made in Kilkenny have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature: The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner and Wolfwalkers. Wolfwalkers, set in seventeenth century Kilkenny, streams on Apple TV+. The films draw heavily on Irish folklore and scenery, and their hand-drawn 2D look has become the style many viewers abroad associate with Irish animation.
For a business, the lesson from these films concerns design discipline rather than budget. A feature costs far more than any commercial project, but the same habits (a limited palette and a consistent line) carry straight into a 60 second brand film and make it recognisable the second time someone sees it.
Children’s series from Belfast and Derry
Northern Ireland has built a steady output of preschool and children’s television. Puffin Rock, a preschool series co-produced by studios in Derry and Kilkenny, follows two puffin siblings exploring an island off the Irish coast. It first aired on RTÉjr and Nick Jr in 2015, was later carried internationally by Netflix, and returned for a third series in September 2025. Its spin-off, Puffin Rock and the New Friends, was the first animated feature produced in Northern Ireland and reached Irish cinemas in 2023.
Belfast studios have produced Pablo, a series about a five-year-old autistic boy that won Best Pre-School Programme at the Broadcast Awards, and Lily’s Driftwood Bay, a mixed-media show for four to six year olds about a girl who builds an imaginary island from things washed up on the beach. Both carry a sensitive or abstract subject in a way that live action would struggle to match. That is the same reason businesses use animation to explain a service that is hard to film.
The sector behind the examples is larger than most buyers expect
Animation on the island of Ireland is an export industry. Its size explains why a business in Belfast or Dublin can hire experienced animators without sending the work to London, and why local studios hold to standards set by international broadcasters. Animation Ireland, which represents studios across the whole island, counts 47 member studios employing more than 2,500 full-time professionals, with their work reaching audiences in over 180 countries. Productions in the Republic can claim a tax credit of up to 32 percent on eligible spending, which Animation Ireland describes as among the most generous in Europe.
In the north, public investment runs through Northern Ireland Screen. Over its 2022 to 2026 strategy, the productions it backed put more than £477 million into the local economy against a £442 million target. That figure covers every screen sector it supports, film and television drama included, so it should not be read as an animation total. Its new four-year strategy, The Full Picture, keeps support running across the sectors it funds.
You will not draw on these funds to make a brand video. They matter indirectly, because they keep studios and freelancers working in the region between broadcast commissions, and that pool of experienced people is what brings good commercial animation within reach of an SME budget.
Commercial animation examples businesses commission
Most commercial animation does one of a small number of jobs, and the format should follow the job. The table describes the formats businesses in Northern Ireland and Ireland commission most often, with what a strong example of each looks like. These are descriptions of the format rather than case studies.
| Format | Typical use | What a strong example shows | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explainer video (60 to 90 seconds) | A service or process that is hard to film | One message and a clear next step at the end | Start here if you have never commissioned animation |
| Training or e-learning module | Staff onboarding and compliance training | Short sections that can be updated without a full re-edit | Choose it when every new starter must hear the same message |
| Social clips and marketing videos | Organic social feeds and your own website | Formats planned for each platform from one master file | Agree the cut-down versions in the original quote |
| Launch teaser | A product that does not yet exist to film | A clear picture of the use case and a date or sign-up | Commission only with a plan for where it will run |
| Brand animation | Video openers and website headers | A short, consistent motion style used everywhere | Commission once and reuse it across all your video |
Explainer videos
The explainer is the most common first commission because it reaches buyers at the moment they are trying to understand what you do. A good one makes a single point in 60 to 90 seconds and ends on one action, such as booking a call. The page on animated explainer videos for Northern Ireland businesses covers costs and process in more detail.
Training and internal content
Animated modules keep the message identical for every new starter, which live-action training filmed on different days rarely manages. The strongest examples are built in short sections, so a change in policy means replacing one scene rather than re-editing the whole film. This format also suits organisations with high staff turnover, where the cost of the module is spread across every person who watches it.
Social clips and marketing videos
Short animated clips hold one visual style across every channel, and a single master file can be cut into several formats so the production cost goes further. The examples that work were planned for each platform from the start rather than cropped afterwards. The guide to animated marketing videos explains how these clips fit into a wider campaign.
Launch teasers and brand animation
Animation lets you show a product before it physically exists, which is why technology firms and start-ups lean on it for launches. Brand animation, such as a moving logo or a short ident at the start of every video, is the smallest commission and often the most reused. If you are still settling on a look, the comparison of brand animation styles sets out the options side by side.
How to judge an animation example or showreel
Judge any example against the job it was made to do, not against how polished it looks. A showreel is a highlight edit, so ask to see one complete commercial piece from start to finish, ideally for a business similar to yours, and ask what it was meant to achieve.
Watch first for the script. If you cannot say what the video wanted you to do after a single viewing, the animation is covering for a weak brief. Then check consistency: characters and colours should hold steady from the first frame to the last, because drift usually points to a rushed schedule.
Style comes last, and the choice between 2D and 3D normally follows the message rather than the budget. The 2D versus 3D animation buyer’s guide compares the two on cost and timeline.
Ciaran Connolly, founder of ProfileTree, puts it this way: “Animation works for our SME clients when it answers a specific question a customer is already asking. The studios producing broadcast-quality work in Belfast and Dublin are the same ones SMEs can now reach.” In his view, the deciding factor is a clear goal for the video, agreed before production starts.
Using examples to brief your own animation
Examples are most useful at the start of a brief, before anyone has quoted. Collect two or three pieces you like and write a sentence for each explaining what it does well. A note that says “this explainer makes one point and ends on a booking button” gives a studio far more to work with than a link and the words “something like this”.
Write the goal in one sentence: who the video is for and what they should do after watching it. Decide at the same stage how you will measure that, whether through completion rate on an explainer or fewer support calls after a training module. Agree the script before any design work starts, since script changes after animation has begun are where budgets overrun. The guide to animation production costs in Belfast and Dublin explains what drives a quote on each side of the border.
Plan where the finished video will live before it is made. An animation sitting on a page that is built to be found keeps earning views long after launch, which is why ProfileTree plans animation as part of its video marketing work and alongside the written content that supports visibility in AI search.
FAQs
Is the animation on this page ProfileTree’s own work?
The broadcast and feature examples are not ProfileTree work; they are publicly released productions from studios across the island, included to show the standard of work produced here. ProfileTree builds animation into video production and video marketing for clients across Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK, working with animation specialists where a project needs them. Ask to see commercial pieces relevant to your sector when you talk through a brief.
Where can I watch animation made in Ireland and Northern Ireland?
Wolfwalkers streams on Apple TV+, and Puffin Rock has been carried internationally by Netflix. Belfast-made children’s series such as Pablo have aired on CBeebies and RTÉjr. For commercial work, the most reliable source is the studio or agency itself, and a full piece tells you more than any showreel.
Which type of animation should a small business start with?
Start with a short 2D explainer or a motion graphics piece. It communicates clearly at a fraction of the cost of 3D or detailed character work, and it is the format most likely to pay back because it answers a question buyers are already asking. Character animation earns its place when the story needs a person the viewer can follow through a customer journey.
How long does an animated explainer take to make?
For a standard 60 to 90 second explainer, expect roughly four to eight weeks from approved script to final delivery. The script and storyboard stages take the most calendar time because each needs your sign-off, and that is deliberate: changes are cheap on a storyboard and expensive once animation is under way.
Does animation help a page appear in search and AI answers?
Animation helps indirectly. Video can keep visitors on a page for longer, and a page that answers real questions in text around the video gives search engines and AI assistants something they can quote. The video alone will not rank a page, because the written content around it does that work.
Start with the brief for your own animation
If an example on this page is close to what you need, note what it does well and bring it to a conversation about your own project. Call ProfileTree on 028 9568 0364 or email agency@profiletree.com, and we will match the format to a goal you can measure before any design work begins.