Battle For Dream Island (BFDI), a web series posted to the YouTube channel “Jacknjellify,” is an emerging powerhouse in the online animation space, with over 1.6 billion total video views and 2.4 million subscribers. The show’s success is owed in no small part to Niall Burns, who has been serving as a lead animator since 2018 and has helped develop the show’s iconic visual style.
Episodes of BFDI featuring Burns’ work have been viewed over 229 million times, and his animation has helped Jacknjellify attract one of the largest and most passionate fan bases on the internet today. How has Niall Burns managed to achieve such meteoric success in the rapidly changing space of web-based content? The answer lies in his unwavering dedication to his craft and a mastery of expressive storytelling.
An Innovator in Animation
Burns was not a founding member of Battle For Dream Island’s animation team, but he made a strong first impression when he animated the opening scene of “BFB 13: Return of the Rocket Ship” in 2019. Opening scenes are especially critical in online content–it is in a video’s opening seconds that the average viewer decides whether to continue watching or click away to another video. It was clear from the get-go that Burns’ animation successfully hooked the audience, as the episode earned 9.9 million views and an 8.5/10 rating on IMDb.
BFDI already had an established visual style when Burns joined the team, but with ten years of experience under his belt already, he was interested in experimenting with the show’s style and pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved through the existing aesthetic. Burns brought his signature style into the world of BFDI, resulting in bouncier character animation and more fluid action scenes. Possessing a mind capable of visualizing intricately detailed sequences, coupled with the technical skill to bring these visions to fruition, Burns consistently raises the bar for BFDI’s animation and inspires his coworkers to do the same.
Early Beginnings
Niall Burns found his spark for animation when he was still a child watching cartoons online. The wealth of independent animators on platforms like YouTube and Newgrounds inspired him to practice animation himself. Starting with free programs like Pivot Animator, he invested hours learning to navigate animation software and honing his craft. When he was ready for more advanced software, he made the jump to Adobe Animate (formerly Macromedia Flash), the same program used by Battle For Dream Island, with which he continued to practice and began to develop his style.
When Burns discovered BFDI in 2012, he was inspired to create his web series, Object Overload. He learned about the entire animation pipeline through this process, from writing and voice acting to animation and editing, having to fill every single role himself. From 2013 to 2015, he released seven episodes of the show on his personal YouTube channel “XanyLeaves,” where they went on to earn over 20 million collective views. Through his show, Burns began to establish his reputation as an animator in the YouTube space and attract animation enthusiasts to his work: his channel today boasts 42 million total views and 130,000 subscribers, enough to earn him a Silver Creator Award from YouTube itself.
Animation as Storytelling
Battle For Dream Island offers an imaginative world full of lovable characters, but they would have no impact without animation to bring them to life. Through his attention to detail and technical prowess in the field, Burns helps to make BFDI’s story more immersive and engaging for its audience.
“It’s focusing on the small details that make an impact,” Burns stated. “Something as simple as how a character’s face is drawn can make all the difference to how the viewer will feel in that moment.” By blending exaggerated cartoony expressions with believable fluid motion in his scenes, Burns ensures that all of BFDI’s character, story, and emotional beats land to maximum effect. For example, see the expression and dynamic posing demonstrated in the image below, which is taken from “BFDI:TPOT 9: Outbreak At Stake,” an episode with 5.7 million views and an IMDb score of 9.2/10:
Growing Viewership Through Animation
Viewers are more likely to return to content that consistently delivers a high-quality visual experience, and Niall Burns knows how to deliver animation that viewers will want to revisit and share again and again. His snappy animation style has worked wonders in broadening the show’s reach. For example, his work on the episode “BFDI:TPOT 1: You Know Those Buttons Don't Do Anything, Right?”, which currently boasts over 19.4 million views, was critical in boosting the show’s popularity and reach by making the episode more appealing and shareable.
“Speaking from experience, if there’s a sequence with abnormally excellent animation, viewers are going to revisit that sequence in the future, they’ll remember it,” Burns noted. This is why his commitment to high-quality animation is so vital to the show’s continued growth and success–his work across 27 episodes of BFDI has helped the show stick in people’s minds and keeps them coming back for more. He has even helped the show gain critical acclaim: in 2021, his work spanned all 4 episodes that were released that year, and in the same year, the series won the “Outstanding Web Series” award at The Cartoon Crave Awards. It is clear that Burns’ animation has greatly contributed to the series’ success in resonating with audiences and critics alike.
Rising to the Challenge of Complex Sequences
Within the Battle For Dream Island creative team, Niall Burns has developed a reputation for being one of the most reliable animators. Project directors will often assign Burns the episode’s most complex scenes, confident that he will complete them to the highest possible quality.
Armed with creativity, a wide range of skills and years of experience, Burns never shies away from a challenge. Whether he’s animating a dynamic montage sequence like in “BFB 27: Uprooting Everything”, or animating characters evading stacks of falling building blocks like in
“BFDI:TPOT 3: Getting Puffball To Think About Rollercoasters”, Burns has an uncanny ability to take the most chaotic action-packed sequences and render them clearly and efficiently, all while maintaining the show’s zippy pacing and uniquely surreal sense of humour.
Audience Interactivity and Engagement
What sets Battle For Dream Island apart from competitors is its audience interactivity: in each episode, viewers get to vote for which characters they would like to see eliminated from the show. Characters are eliminated one by one until only one winner remains. The show drives a lot of engagement this way, with “BFDI:TPOT 10: Oneirophobe’s Nightmare” receiving a whopping 90,503 votes from viewers to determine the episode’s elimination. This process relies on quality character animation to keep viewers invested and motivated to vote and save their favourites. When Niall Burns brings the characters to life with his animation, he is therefore helping to drive up audience voting and engagement.
Battle For Dream Island also engages with its devoted fan base by hosting live in-person events where fans can gather to watch theatrical screenings of brand-new episodes. In the summer of 2023, fans attended screenings at the Saban Media Center in Los Angeles and the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in New York City. Burns’ animation was featured on the big screen in both locations, and the event was a huge success, selling over 3,300 tickets and earning $100,300 in revenue. Burns’ work is also set to be featured at a similar event this year, with over 15,000 tickets pre-sold for screenings in six cities across the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Fort Lauderdale.
Future Prospects and Expansion
Battle For Dream Island is currently experiencing unprecedented growth, partly due to an increased output of short-form content which allows the show to reach new demographics. These short-form videos consist mainly of scenes from existing episodes, reformatted and repackaged to be enjoyed as standalone sketches. Within the last year on YouTube Shorts and TikTok, shorts containing Niall Burns’ work have already reached over 27 million views.
In the field of web-based animation, Niall Burns is an unmatched talent. His passion, humour, technical skill, and storytelling prowess are present in every frame of his work, and he has added immense value to the Battle For Dream Island brand while massively increasing its reach and viewership. As he continues to push the boundaries of animation and visual artistry, there is no doubt that he will continue to inspire independent animators worldwide for years to come.
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