Procreate Animation Tutorial: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

If you want to bring your illustrations to life, Procreate’s animation tools offer a straightforward way to start creating frame-by-frame animations on your iPad. Learning how to use Procreate’s Animation Assist and layer options lets you create simple gifs or more complex animated projects without advanced software. Whether you are new to animation or have some drawing experience, you can use Procreate’s clean interface to experiment and animate at your own pace as you work through our Procreate Animation Tutorial.

With real examples like looping effects and animated lettering, you’ll see how easy it is to build motion graphics that stand out. This guide will give you practical steps, valuable tips, and reliable techniques so you can begin making your own animations today.

Step 1: Get Started With Our Procreate Animation Tutorial

To begin animating in Procreate, you need to ensure compatibility, set up the right canvas, and understand the interface that houses essential animation tools. Each of these steps is critical for a streamlined and successful animation workflow.

System Requirements And Supported Devices

Procreate’s animation features are exclusive to the iPad, running iPadOS 13.2 or later. You’ll get the best experience on newer iPad models that support the Apple Pencil. While some older devices might work, performance can be limited with large files or multiple animation frames.

Here’s a quick overview:

Device	Apple Pencil Support	Recommended for Animation
iPad Pro (all models)	Yes	Yes
iPad Air (3rd Gen and newer)	Yes	Yes
iPad (6th Gen and newer)	Yes	Yes
iPad mini (5th Gen and newer)	Yes	Yes

A compatible stylus, ideally the Apple Pencil, is recommended for precise control. Sufficient device storage is also important to manage layers and animation frames.

Set Up Your Canvas For Animation

Before animating, open Procreate and tap the plus icon to create a new canvas. Consider the purpose: for social media, common sizes are 1080 x 1080 pixels (square) or 1920 x 1080 pixels (HD). Higher resolutions allow for better quality but use more resources.

Set the frame rate according to your needs—12 to 24 FPS is typical for smooth animation. Procreate’s Animation Assist helps organize your frames as an animation timeline. Enable it by opening the Actions menu (wrench icon), choosing “Canvas,” and toggling on Animation Assist.

Organize your layers as frames. Each layer represents one frame in your animation. Using groups can help keep your file organized, especially for more advanced sequences.

Understand The Procreate Interface

The Procreate interface combines drawing and animation tools in a streamlined layout. The main workspace centers your canvas, while the top toolbar holds essential icons for brushes, adjustments, and actions. The Layer panel on the right shows your frames when Animation Assist is enabled.

Animation features appear as a timeline at the bottom when you activate Animation Assist. Here, you can add, duplicate, or rearrange frames. Onion skinning allows you to preview previous and next frames for smoother transitions.

Essential tools like the brush, eraser, and selection are accessible along the sidebar. Use the Apple Pencil or another compatible stylus for precision. Familiarizing yourself with these tools accelerates your workflow and improves the quality of your animations.

Step 2: Enable And Use Animation Assist

Procreate’s Animation Assist simplifies the animation process by offering you a visual timeline, intuitive controls, and customizable animation settings. Understanding how to activate the tool, navigate the timeline, and configure frame rate or playback options helps you create smooth and professional-looking animations.

Activate the Animation Assist Tool

To enable Animation Assist, start by opening your chosen canvas in Procreate. Tap on the Actions menu (wrench icon) at the top left of your interface. Select the Canvas tab.

Toggle the Animation Assist switch to turn on this feature. Once enabled, you will notice a new timeline bar appear at the bottom of your workspace. This tool lets you work scene by scene and better organize each frame. Every layer can be used as a separate frame, allowing you to manage your animation efficiently. Animation Assist is available in most recent versions of Procreate and is designed to be easily accessible for beginners and advanced users.

Timeline Navigation And Controls

Once Animation Assist is active, you can see the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Each frame is represented as a thumbnail, and you can quickly tap on any frame to edit it.

Buttons for play, pause, and frame stepping allow you to preview your animation immediately. You may reorder frames by dragging them, which is useful for fine-tuning your sequence. Onion skinning overlays previous and next frames, helping with drawing motion or transitions. A simple right-click lets you access additional options, such as duplicating or deleting frames, streamlining your workflow. Visual feedback on the timeline supports intuitive navigation, even for users with little animation experience.

Configure Animation Settings

Procreate Animation Assist provides a range of customizable settings for precise control. Tap the Settings button on the timeline bar to adjust animation playback options.

You can set the frame rate (frames per second) to control the speed of your animation. Higher frame rates make the motion smoother, while lower rates create a more stylized look. Choose your playback mode—Loop, Ping Pong, or One Shot—to determine how your animation plays. Onion skinning settings can also be customized, letting you control how many frames before and after are visible and their opacity. Use these configuration options to match your animation’s style and requirements.

Step 3: Create Animation Frames

To build effective animations in Procreate, focus on how you organize layers, draw each frame, and adjust opacity to manage visibility between them. Attention to detail in these areas will streamline your workflow and help ensure smooth, polished results.

Adding And Organizing Layers

Begin by creating a new canvas and establishing your background layer. In Procreate, each frame of your animation is placed on a separate layer within the same project.

Organize your animation frames by naming each layer clearly, such as “Frame 1”, “Frame 2”, etc. This makes it easier to keep track of progress and spot errors quickly.

Consider grouping layers if your animation includes multiple elements (such as character and background). Procreate’s layer system also allows you to rearrange, duplicate, or merge layers as needed. Using the Animation Assist feature, enable the onion skinning option, which helps you see previous and next frames as translucent overlays, aiding precise adjustments.

Drawing And Sketching Frames

When drawing your animation, use your chosen brush to sketch each frame on its own layer. Begin with rough sketches to outline movement. This preliminary phase gives you a general sense of motion and timing between frames.

Adjust the frame rate in Animation Assist to control the speed of playback. Common frame rates range from 12 to 24 frames per second. More frames create smoother animation but require more work.

After rough sketching, refine your drawings by adding details on each layer. Use the same brushes and color palette for consistency. Always check your animation playback frequently to ensure that motion appears fluid and transitions are natural.

Managing Opacity And Visibility

Control the opacity of each layer to refine your workflow. Lower the opacity on rough sketch layers so they don’t overpower clean line art above them.

Utilize Procreate’s onion skinning option in Animation Assist. This displays preceding and succeeding frames at reduced opacity, showing a ghost-like image. Adjust the onion skin opacity setting for optimal visibility as you draw.

Toggle visibility of certain layers, such as guide sketches or the background layer, to focus on specific animation elements during the drawing process. Managing both opacity and layer visibility makes it easier to correct mistakes and maintain clarity across your frames.

Step 4: Use Onion Skinning For Animation

Onion skinning in Procreate animation gives you precise control over your workflow by showing faded previews of nearby frames. This visual aid helps you align, adjust, and improve your frame-by-frame animation more efficiently.

Adjusting Onion Skin Frames

Onion skin frames show you the previous and next frames as transparent overlays behind and ahead of your current frame. In Procreate, you can specify how many of these frames should appear on the canvas, allowing for either a minimal or broader view of the animation sequence.

To customize this:

• Go to Animation Assist in Procreate’s settings.
• Use the Onion Skin Frames slider to set the exact number of visible frames, both forwards and backwards.

A lower setting displays fewer onion skins, making your workspace less cluttered and easier to read. Increasing the number enables you to track motion and spacing of your animation in detail. Adjust as needed based on the complexity of your animation or your personal preferences.

Control Of Onion Skin Opacity

Onion skin opacity determines how transparent previous and upcoming frames appear compared to your active frame. This control is critical for clarity; if these frames are too opaque, they can distract you from the current drawing.

Within the Animation Assist menu, adjust the Onion Skin Opacity slider to set the transparency level. Lower opacity values make the onion skin frames less visually dominant, while higher values make them stand out more. You can also change the Blend Primary Frame setting, which affects how strongly your active (primary) frame stands out compared to onion skins.

Fine-tuning opacity allows you to achieve visual balance. Set values that best reveal movement without overwhelming the primary frame, especially when working on complex sequences. This makes frame planning and corrections more efficient.

Step 5: Try Some Brushes, Colors, And Texture Techniques

Procreate’s animation capabilities depend heavily on your control of brushes, colors, and texture techniques. Focusing on these elements helps you create expressive, consistent, and visually interesting animated artwork.

Selecting Brushes For Animation

The brush you choose directly affects the look and feel of each frame. Procreate’s Brush Library includes standard options for inking, sketching, and painting, but you can also import custom brush sets or create your own for a unique effect.

For animation, consistency is important. Use the same brush set throughout a sequence to prevent unintentional style shifts. When aiming for textured or hand-drawn animations, select grainy or textured brushes to replicate pencil or marker styles.

Recommended approach:

• For clean lines: Inking or Technical Pens
• For textured effects: Charcoal, Pencil, or purchased texture brushes
• For fill or backgrounds: Flat or Soft Airbrushes

Experiment with brush settings like opacity, streamline, and jitter for further control.

Utilizing Color Palettes And Color Profiles

Choosing the right colors and profiles ensures your animations look professional across all devices and uses. Procreate allows you to create and save custom color palettes, or import palettes from websites and generators. This speeds up your workflow and keeps your artwork visually coherent.

Use color profiles like sRGB or P3 when starting your animation file. These settings impact how your colors display during export and sharing. Setting this up at the beginning prevents color mismatches.

Tips for color management:

• Build reusable palettes for consistent character or scene designs
• Use contrasting colors for foreground/background separation
• Check colors under different profile previews before export

Applying Texture And Shading

Texture adds depth and dimension to animated frames, while shading defines shape and light direction. Apply textured brushes to specific areas, using layers to blend effects without damaging your base artwork.

Take advantage of layer blend modes for shadows and highlights. For example, set a layer to Multiply for shadows or Add for highlights, then use a soft brush to gently build up the effect.

Key techniques:

• Use texture brushes for clothing, hair, and backgrounds
• Apply shadows on separate layers for easy refinement
• Combine soft and hard-edged brushes for a dynamic look

Vary texture density based on focal areas to guide the viewer’s attention. Adjust opacity and brush size to control subtlety in both shading and texture.

Step 6: Learn Animating And Playback Controls

When working with Procreate animation, controlling playback and adjusting how your animation sequence behaves is essential. Specific settings for frame rate, playback options, and instant preview can help you refine how your project looks and feels.

Controlling Frame Rate And Playback

The frame rate (fps) you select directly determines how smooth your animation will look. In Procreate, you can adjust the frame rate using the Animation Assistant’s toolbar. Typical fps values range from 12 to 24 frames per second.

A lower fps, such as 12, creates a more stylized and choppy animation, which is often used for simple, hand-drawn works. If you want smoother movement, increase the fps value toward 24. Adjusting frame rate impacts playback speed, so always preview your animation after making changes.

Animated content for social media may look best at a lower fps due to platform limitations. Experiment to find the ideal balance between performance and the look you want.

Loop, One-Shot, And Ping-Pong Options

Procreate offers three main playback options: Loop, One-Shot, and Ping-Pong. Each mode changes how your animation sequence repeats.

• Loop: The animation restarts from the first frame after reaching the end, creating continuous playback.
• One-Shot: The animation plays through once and then stops on the final frame, ideal for single-event motion.
• Ping-Pong: The animation plays forward to the last frame, then reverses back to the first, repeating this back-and-forth pattern for seamless motion.

Choose the option that matches your animation’s intent. For example, “Loop” is ideal for GIFs, while “Ping-Pong” can add interest to repeating actions without abrupt stops.

Previewing Your Animation

Procreate provides instant playback so you can quickly preview your animation sequence as you work. Tap the “Play” button in the Animation Assistant to see how your frames run together at your chosen fps.

You can scrub through frames manually for a frame-by-frame check or use the preview to spot any inconsistencies in motion. Adjustments to layers or playback settings update the preview in real time.

Regularly previewing helps ensure your final animation matches your vision. Use this feature to make precise tweaks and catch mistakes early, making the animating process smoother and more efficient.

Step 7: Try Editing And Advanced Animation Techniques

Editing animation in Procreate involves precise control over frames, layers, and effects. Using focused techniques helps you add complexity and polish, whether you are arranging key actions or refining visuals with masks and motion graphics.

Working With Keyframes

Procreate’s Animation Assist uses frame-by-frame animation rather than traditional keyframe-based systems. You can mimic keyframe animation by carefully duplicating, editing, and shifting frames to represent major changes or “key” poses in your sequence.

This workflow lets you divide your animation into breakdowns for easier editing. To quickly manage timing, use the Onion Skinning feature to preview previous and next frames, allowing you to adjust in-between drawings for smoother transitions.

Frame grouping and layer organization further support complex animations by making it easier to isolate movements and tweak actions without affecting other parts of your artwork.

Using Clipping Masks And Layer Masks

Clipping masks and layer masks give you granular control over each animated element. A clipping mask locks the visibility of a layer to the contents of the layer below, so you can introduce shadows, highlights, or color changes only where you want them. This is especially useful for animating details like character lighting or dynamic shading.

A layer mask lets you hide or reveal specific parts of a layer non-destructively. If you want to create a wipe transition or animate a gradual reveal, painting directly onto the mask allows you to control what is shown at each frame without affecting your original artwork.

Using these masking techniques, you keep your animations flexible and easy to edit, since changes to masks don’t alter the underlying drawing.

Motion Graphics And Advanced Effects

Motion graphics in Procreate can be achieved by combining frame manipulation, layer effects, and animated transitions. You can use the Transform tool to move, scale, or rotate elements frame-by-frame, creating illusions such as parallax or character movement.

To create advanced effects, blend modes can be applied to layers for glow, overlay, or texture. Animators often animate textures or overlays for visual complexity, like flickering lights or sparkling accents.

Export options allow you to create looping GIFs, transparent backgrounds, or high-resolution videos, making it possible to share polished animations directly or use them in larger motion graphics projects.

Step 8: Export And Share Your Procreate Animations

Exporting animations in Procreate gives you several important options for file formats, dimensions, and the best ways to share your work directly to popular platforms. Knowing how to set up exports properly will ensure your animations look their best wherever you post them.

Exporting As GIF, PNG, MP4, And HEVC

Procreate supports multiple animation export formats. The primary choices are Animated GIF, Animated PNG (APNG), MP4 video, and HEVC. Each format has distinct advantages depending on how you plan to use your animation.

• GIF is widely supported and works well for short, looping animations, especially on social media and messaging.
• PNG (APNG) provides higher quality with transparency, but not all platforms support it.
• MP4 is best for longer videos and is compatible with YouTube Studio, Instagram, TikTok, and video editing tools like iMovie.
• HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) offers smaller file sizes at high quality, but may not be as universally compatible as MP4.

To export, tap the wrench icon in Procreate, select “Share,” and choose your desired format.

Choosing Export Dimensions And Settings

Setting the right dimensions and export settings is critical for maintaining animation quality. Procreate lets you adjust output resolution and frame rate before exporting.

If you’re posting to Instagram or TikTok, use standard sizes like 1080 x 1920 pixels (vertical video) or 1080 x 1080 pixels (square). For YouTube, 1920 x 1080 pixels (full HD) works well.

You can also set the frame rate. Common choices are 24fps or 30fps for smoother motion. Be aware that higher resolutions and frame rates increase file size. When exporting as GIF or APNG, limiting the color palette helps reduce the file size further.

Sharing To Social Media

Once your animation is exported, sharing it to social media platforms is straightforward, but requires careful selection based on each platform’s requirements. MP4 works best for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, as these accept video uploads and offer auto-compression.

If you want to share a looping animation in stories or chats, GIF is ideal, but keep the duration and file size small for compatibility. To upload to YouTube Studio, export your animation as MP4 and upload it directly from your device.

For video editing apps like iMovie, export in MP4 or HEVC, then import the file into the app for further editing before publishing. Always preview your animation on the target platform to check for quality or playback issues.

Bonus: Best Practices And Creative Tips

Paying attention to workflow organization, customizing your interface, and adding audio can significantly improve your animation projects in Procreate. Each of these strategies allows you to produce more polished, efficient, and engaging digital illustrations.

Optimizing Your Animation Workflow

Efficient workflows help you stay organized and reduce mistakes. To start, group similar layers using the Group Layers function so you can quickly locate different animation elements. This makes it easier to manage complex sequences with multiple moving parts.

Use multiple canvases when working on different scenes or testing ideas. This keeps your main file uncluttered and makes it easy to experiment. The Animation Assist toolbar, enabled in the Actions menu, centralizes frame management and playback, streamlining the editing process.

Name each layer clearly, indicating its function or position in the sequence, to avoid confusion later. When illustrating, try to separate moving elements onto dedicated layers for simple adjustments.

Here’s a sample workflow checklist:

Step	Details
Plan frames	Sketch and timeline key poses
Organize	Group layers by movement type
Name layers	Use descriptive names
Test loops	Playback frequently

Customizing The Toolbar And Interface

Setting up the Procreate interface to match your animation needs enhances productivity. Tap and hold the QuickMenu icon to assign shortcuts for tools you frequently use, such as Transform or Selection. This cuts down on repetitive menu navigation.

Personalize brush sets for specific animated effects or outlining. Import custom fonts if your animation includes text to match your project’s style precisely. Arrange palette and layer panels for convenient access, depending on your screen size or working style.

Moving seldom-used controls out of sight reduces distraction, letting you concentrate on illustrating and animating. Thoughtful toolbar customization results in a streamlined animation environment.

Incorporating Sound And Music

Procreate itself does not support direct audio integration, but planning for music and sound can positively impact your animation. You should storyboard where sound cues appear to synchronize visual actions with audio for a more engaging result.

Export your finished animation as a video file, then use software like iMovie or Adobe Premiere Rush to add background music, sound effects, or voiceovers. Choose audio elements that compliment the mood or pace of your digital illustration.

When presenting, ensure your audio levels are consistent and that the music does not overpower any dialogue or effects. Testing your animation with sound on different devices can help you catch balance issues before sharing it.

Beginner’s Guide to Procreate

Our Beginner’s Guide to Procreate is the ultimate resource to kickstart your digital art journey. It covers everything from the basics of navigating the app to advanced techniques for creating stunning artwork so that you can not only get off to a strong start but gain confidence quickly. Dive in and unleash your creativity with Procreate!