Interactive Guide to Procreate Animation

Procreate's

an interactive guide to

ANIMATION FEATURES

© tracey capone 2022 and beyond

how this guide works...

Interactive Buttons:

Each page will cover a different aspect of the animation tool and, throughout the guide, you will find a number of interactive links that will provide tips, links and help navigate. Click, or hover, over the icons for more info.

external link

quick tip

tap on this icon, found at the top right of every page, to see where all the interactive elements are.

Throughout the guide, icons that are built in to Procreate will have interactive buttons attached to them. Click the icons for more information specific to that page's lesson.

Gallery

Tapping on Gallery in any of the modules will take you back to the Table of Contents

navigate through the pages of the guide

table of contents

CLICK ON THE NOTES BELOW TO GO STRAIGHT TO THAT MODULE. HOVER OVER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS ICON FOR A PREVIEW AS TO WHAT'S COVERED IN THE MODULE.

How This Guide Works

Timeline Options

Animation Interface

Home Page

AnimationSettings

Export Options

GIF

Export Options

PNG

Export Options

MP4

About the Author

CLICK "GALLERY" ON THE NEXT SEVERAL MODULES TO COME BACK TO THIS TABLE OF CONTENTS

Gallery

procreate's animation interface

Animations are created with the same tools as any other illustration, but some tools have animation specific uses, in addition to their regular duties. Let's take a look...

Click the icons at the left, to see them in action.

ACTIONS MENU

Turn Animation Assist on in the Actions Menu under Canvas. To turn it off, follow the same process, in reverse.

LAYERS PANEL

Procreate animates on a frame by frame basis and frames are tied to the layer panel. For every layer, or group of layers, you get a single frame in the timeline. You can adjust the order of your frames in the timeline or in the layer panel; whichever is easiest. It's important to note, frames/animated layers count towards your overall layer capacity just like non-animated layers. Keep this in mind when you are creating your animations and consolidate where you can

The Timeline

Tap the icons for A QUICK VIDEO TUTORIAL!

The timeline is located at the bottom of the screen, once animation is turned on. It will show every layer, or group of layers as a frame in the form of thumbnails, and corresponds with the layers in the Layer Panel. The far left frame represents the layer at the bottom of the stack; the far right layer represents the top most layer. Let's take a closer look at the rest of the timeline.

PLAY/PAUSE: Allows you to play back your animation as well as pause it.

ADD A FRAME: Allows you to add a blank frame just after the frame you have currently selected.

FRAME OPTIONS: Tap any frame to bring up additional frame options, such as "Duplicate" or "Delete."

SETTINGS: This is where you can set your animation type, frames per second, and more. We'll take a closer look at Settings on the next page.

Tap on the timeline below to see how you can scrub through, or reorder, your timeline

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Play/Pause

Gallery

procreate's animation timeline options

We have looked at the overall interface, let's take a closer look at the options available for frames.

HOLD FRAMES

By adding a hold to an individual frame, Procreate will extend the amount of time it pauses on that frame, before moving to the next one. Basically, it's "freezing the frame," allowing you to adjust the timing of your animation as well as set a particular rhythm.

You can set your hold up to a maximum of 120 frames; hold frames will be greyed out in the timeline. To remove holds, simply go back in to the frame options and drag the slider all the way back to None.

DUPLICATE & DELETE

Delete, or duplicate, an existing frame in the timeline, rather than having to open the Layer Panel.

FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

TAP THE ICONS FOR A QUICK VIDEO TUTORIAL!

Procreate allows you to designate both a foreground, and background, layer if you choose to. These layers will remain locked, and not get animated, but will show up as static elements in the final animation. You can only designate the frame on the far right (or top of the layer stack in the layer panel) as foreground, and the far left (or bottom of the layer stack) as background. As soon as you change their designation, they will become a part of the animation and get treated as a regular frame. In addition to a single layer, you can also create a foreground and background out of a group of layers as well.

Play/Pause

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Gallery

procreate's animation settings

The Settings panel is where you can change your animations playback mode, timing, and change the appearance of the animation panel itself. You can find the Settings panel in the timeline. Let's take a look!

PLAYBACK MODE

Choose between Loop, Ping-Pong or One Shot.

Loop will create a continuous looping animation that plays through and starts up again as soon as it reaches the end. Ping-Ping is like a boomerang. It will cycle back and forth between the frames and is the playback mode of choice when you need something to play and then reverse movement. One Shot is going to run through the cycle and stop. This is a good option for something like an animated title screen.

FRAMES PER SECOND (FPS)

This is where the magic happens when it comes to timing. A higher frames per second is going to make your animation run faster and therefore potentially more smoothly. A lower frames per second will slow it down and give it a more "choppy" feel. The setting you choose ultimately depends on what type of movement you are aiming to portray. You can choose a FPS between 1 and 60. Experiment with your animations and see what works best for them!

ONION SKINS

TAP THE ICONS FOR a QUICK VIDEO TUTORIAL!

Certain animations are easier to create when you can see the previous frames, or upcoming frames if you're inserting a frame somewhere in an existing timeline. They help you see where existing parts of the animation are, and help you create a much smoother animation. ONION SKIN FRAMES: Procreate's Onion Skin settings allow you to see frames up to 12 frames on either side of your current frame so that you can see where they are on the canvas. Use this slider to select any number between "None," and the "Max" of 12. ONION SKIN OPACITY: Allows you to determing the of your onion skins from 0% to 100%. The latter will make surrounding frames almost entirely solid. BLEND PRIMARY FRAME: This will allow you to give your current frame a more transparent look so that you can more easily see the other frames. This can be especially useful when you are working with a lot of grouped layers. ONION SKIN COLORS: You can change the default colors of your onion skins, shown on the canvas before and after the primary frame by selecting this option.

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Play/Pause

Gallery

procreate's export settings

Find the export options under the Actions Menu under Share Layers. There are several ways you can export your animations and you choice depends on where you plan to use it. This page will focus on the pros and cons of the export option. Tap the Play buttons at the bottom to watch a quick tutorial on how to complete the export.

Animated GIF

Pros:

• GIF is the most widely accepted, and commonly used, format for animations, and can be loaded on sites like GIPHY for use in a variety of places.
• Loop by default making them the perfect format for animated "stickers" on sites like Instagram

Cons:

• It is the most archaic format. The first GIF was created way back in 1987!
• GIFs do not support partial transparency (so no shadows!)
• Full transparency is accomodated with anti-aliasing, which basically "pads" your object, and can, at times,

come out looking jagged. Procreate tends to handle this very well though, especially at full resolution when you adjust the Alpha Threshold.

• Only supports 256 colors which can make your final result seem as if it's lower quality.
• Overall, they have a lower visual quality than other methods making difficult to use at larger sizes

TAP THE play ICON TO SEE how to export a gif

Play

Play/Pause

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Gallery

procreate's export settings

Find the export options under the Actions Menu under Share Layers. There are several ways you can export your animations and you choice depends on where you plan to use it. This page will focus on the pros and cons of the export option. Tap the Play buttons at the bottom to watch a quick tutorial on how to complete the export.

Animated PNG

Should not be confused with"PNG Files" which exports each frame as an individual layer, or "PNG Sequence." PNG files are not animated; you would need to animate them in another program or animation website.

Pros:

• Allow you to save with partial transparency so it's perfect for animations with drop shadows
• They export at a higher quality than GIFs so they can be used at a larger size.

Cons:

• The biggest downside to using Animated PNG is that most sites don't accept them at this point. Instagram and Facebook require MP4s for regular posts and Stories and GIFs for stickers. Some website platforms allow for them but not many.

TAP THE play ICON TO SEE how to export a PNG

Play

Play/Pause

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Play/Pause

Gallery

procreate's export settings

Find the export options under the Actions Menu under Share Layers. There are several ways you can export your animations and you choice depends on where you plan to use it. This page will focus on the pros and cons of the export option. Tap the Play buttons at the bottom to watch a quick tutorial on how to complete the export.

Animated MP4

Pros:

• Smaller files size, therefore Facebook and Instagram require this format for regular posts over GIFs and PNGs.
• Export at a very high quality which means they're good at larger sizes, unlike GIFs.

Cons:

• The biggest downside to using Animated MP4 is that they use jpeg encoding, which means transparencies, of any kind, are not supported. They are exported with a white background. An alternative in Procreate is "HEVC," which works like an MP4 but allows for transparency. However, just like Animated PNGs, they aren't widely accepted.

TAP THE play ICON TO SEE how to export an MP4

Play

Play/Pause

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

SETTINGS

ADD a FRAME

Play/Pause

GALLERY

About the Author

Hi there! My name is Tracey Capone; I'm a photographer, illustrator and Top Teacher on Skillshare. I also have a YouTube Channel where I share short form tutorials that complement my classes on Skillshare.

I've been a full time artist since 2011, and a creative my entire life. In addition to teaching, I sell my work online, as well as in local and national stores, and manage a number of passive income streams as well.

I work on both the iPad and on a desktop, and use apps from the Affinity Suite, Adobe, and Procreate in my everyday, creative practice. I love sharing what I learn, and helping students learn all the ins and outs of these apps as well! In my mind, the more tools you have in your creative arsenal, the more prepared you are for whatever project comes your way.

In my classes you will learn...

• Not just the how, but also the why... I believe understanding why I take certain approaches, or use particular tools, will help you absorb what you learn and better prepare you to work on your own later.

• To embrace the perfectly imperfect... I feel that it's the best way to develop that sometimes elusive creative voice!

and finally...

• To show yourself grace, and patience, as you learn... as a mostly self-taught artist, I firmly believe that, when given the right tools, time and practice, everyone has an artist inside of them.

Let's stay in touch!

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