How to Use the Liquify Tool in Procreate

The liquify tool is a part of the adjustments panel menu in Procreate. It works the same way a brush does so applying the effect works like "painting" it on your artwork.

In Procreate Pocket, the Liquify features will work in the same way as in the iPad App, the main differences are just because of the interface and the display size.

For this tutorial, we will use the Bali Sunrise font from Font Bundles.

Use the Liquify Tool

To use Liquify, open the Adjustments panel (Magic wand icon on the top left side) and click Liquify. Its interface will appear at the bottom portion of the canvas.

There are 8 types of Liquify modes: Push, Twirl (right or left), Pinch, Expand, Crystals, Edge, and Reconstruct. There are also Adjust and Reset buttons.

Dynamics

Within each Liquify mode, there are 4 settings (Dynamics / Touch Controls) that you can adjust individually using sliders: Size, Pressure, Distortion, and Momentum.

Size

Impacts the brush size and determines how big the area affects.

Pressure

Impacts how strong the effect is depending on how hard you press with the Stylus. If you use it with a finger, it will apply the maximum pressure.

Distortion

Impacts the smoothness of the effect and introduces a chaotic element. The less (minimal) distortion, the smoother the lines will be. On the contrary, the most (maximal) distortion the lines will be more jagged.

Momentum

Keeps the effect continuing even after you lift off the canvas.

Modes

Push

The leftmost option is Push and it’s the default mode of the effect. It’s like a smudge tool that moves the pixels in the direction of your stroke.

If you turn the pressure, Distortion, and momentum levers all the way up you will get results similar to this.

Twirl

Twists the pixels around your stroke into a spiral. It has a left and right setting.

This is what twirl would look like with all the settings turned up to the max.

Pinch

Pulls the surrounding pixels towards your stroke squishing them together.

If you use lower settings the pinch effect would be more subtle like the example below.

Expand

Pushes surrounding pixels away from your stroke creating a balloon effect.

Here's the expand effect with almost all the values at its max.

Crystals

Pushes the surrounding pixels away from your stroke unevenly creating jagged edges.

Same here, with the crystals effect.

Edge

Pulls surrounding pixels inwards towards your stroke folding two halves of the artwork together and making it appear smaller.

And here's an example using slightly different settings.

Reconstruct

It brings back the original image affected by the Liquify effect. It lets you restore some areas without losing the effect on others. It does not work if you already exited Liquify or closed Procreate.

Like with the others, cranking up the dynamics will give you a stronger result.

Adjust and Reset

Once you have applied some of the Liquify features, Adjust becomes available. If you tap it, it lets you adjust the strength of the effect with the Amount slider.

If you reduce the strength amount the effect should be less strong.

Reset, lets you undo all the changes made to the original artwork.

To commit your changes and exit, tap the Adjust icon again. Or, to commit your changes and stay in Liquify, tap the canvas to invoke Adjustment Actions and tap Apply.

The Liquify effect in Procreate is a fun way to add complexity to your designs.