How to Animate in Procreate

Animating in Procreate is a really straightforward process once you get the hang of it. Each visible layer or layer group of your artwork will become a frame for your animation. The more frames you have, the smoother the animation will be. The frames are then combined into a GIF file to create an animation that will loop the indefinitely.

For this tutorial, we will use the Garlic Butter font from the Modern Sans Serif Fonts collection. Don't forget to have a look at the amazing FREE Procreate brushes also available.

Step 1: Create your Canvas

Create a balance between size and image quality by using a canvas size optimized for video and for sharing on the web. Some suggested canvas sizes are 1800 x 1800 px (square), 1920 x 1400 px (horizontal) and 1400 x 1920 px (vertical). If you are planning to use your video on Instagram, 1080 x 1920 px is the way to go.

Step 2: Add a Moving Background to your Animation

We are going to create a moving background for this animation. Create the first layer and draw your image. You can also use this technique with hand-drawn text.

Duplicate the layer (swipe right on its thumbnail and choose Duplicate).

We want to reduce the opacity of the first layer to about 50%. This will help see the second layer more easily to modify it.

Then alter Layer 2 by either painting more on the shape or moving it slightly so it's not exactly the same as Layer 1. Create more layers that differ slightly until you have 3 to 5 layers.

Test out your animation by going to the Actions menu (wrench icon on the top left side), tapping on share, then select Animated GIF. A new window will open with a preview.

Step 3: Make Text Appear in your Animation

Make text appear by duplicating the layer and erasing portions of your artwork. Depending on the order of your frames the object will seem to appear or disappear.

If you don’t have it installed already, import your font to Procreate. Then, in the Actions > Add > Add text.

We placed each word or text box on a different layer for this tutorial.

Once you are happy with your text, tap on the text thumbnail and choose Rasterize to flatten the text.

Duplicate the layer you want to work with and use the eraser with a smooth brush to erase some portions of the text.

Then, duplicate that layer and erase some more text.

Repeat a couple more times until all your text is gone. Then, rearrange your layers so the complete word is at the top of other duplicate layers.

For our second word, we want the word to appear letter by letter. Duplicate the text layer as many times as needed. Erase the letters on each layer to create the progression.

Remember to check the order of your layers so everything follows in order.

Step 4: Rotate Some of your Text

We decided to make the last letter do a 180º spin. You can do by duplicating the last layer, then using the Selection tool to select the last letter.

Then tap on Transform to rotate it a bit. Repeat this process until you complete the desired rotation.

It is a good idea to rename your layers (we used Frame 1, etc) to keep track of the correct order.

Step 5: Bring the portions of your artwork together

Your layers become frames with animations your layers. So you need to merge or group together some of them if you want an element present all the time, like the background.

To do this, duplicate a background layer as many times as needed. Next, place each duplicate under the layer you want to merge it to. Making sure they are both visible, click on the one on top and choose Merge Down or pinch the thumbnails with two fingers.

Repeat all the frames that need the background present.

Step 6: Add Moving Details Using a Guide

To add some final detail, duplicate the top layer and draw your design.

Remember to duplicate your top layer and add the new portion of the design to it.

Create a new layer on top of your artwork. Then use a dark color to draw a line as a guide for the object to move across the canvas. Reduce the opacity to about 50%..

We are going to move just a portion of the artwork following a guided path. The rest will be left as is. To do this, create a duplicate of the last frame (the one on top).

Now add an empty layer on top of it and group them together. We will draw the moving object on this layer.

Duplicate the group and hide the original one. In the duplicate, select the moving object layer, click on its thumbnail, and tap Clear.

Then, draw the modified object. Repeat this for the rest of the object's progression by slightly placing the duplicates along the guide. The number of frames will depend on the detail of the animation.

For objects moving onto or off the canvas, create some frames where your object is cut out until it disappears.

Before saving remember to place your frames in the correct order. Make sure that they are visible, and turn off the visibility of your guide layer or delete it.

To create space between loops, add some empty layers at the end of the animation or duplicates of the original image at the beginning.

Step 7: Test the Order of your Frames

Use the isolate layers function in Procreate to preview your animation. Tap and hold on the visibility checkbox to turn it on and uncheck it on the rest of the layers. Then, tap and hold on each layer from bottom to top to get a preview of your animation frames.

To create a smooth loop/progression back to the starting point, add enough layers by duplicating and reversing their order. Remember, the layers you want animated need to be visible or they will be left out.

Also, turn the opacity of your layers back to 100% before exporting them unless the opacity change is part of the animation.

Step 8: Export your Animation

To export your animation, go to the Actions menu, click Share and choose Animated GIF as the format.

A pop will allow you to adjust some settings like the Frames per second (a higher number makes the animation go faster and a lower number makes it slower), background, and resolution. Full resolution is a better option since web ready downgrades the GIF too much.

Then tap on Save image and choose where to save it. We chose our camera roll.

If you want to share your animations on Instagram, change the format to video (mp4). The app doesn’t support GIF files and won’t let you post any video shorter than 3 seconds (at the time of writing this tutorial).

This is our final animation.

Why not get creative an add a little motion blur using the Gaussian blur? If you liked this tutorial, make sure to check out some of our other Procreate tutorials like how to use drawing guides, and how to draw flat characters.