How to Animate (Simply) in Procreate

ara6j1

Mar 28

3 min read

Updated: Aug 6

#__art #animation #game_artists #game_designers

Before We Start!

This article explains how to use the animation feature in the app Procreate. If you want to learn about using the animation app Procreate Dreams, there are plenty of other tutorials to explore.

So, let’s get started!

What All You Need

Materials:

A device that can run Procreate
A pen or stylus that connects to your device
(Optional) A drawing glove

Skills:

Basic knowledge of how to use Procreate
An active imagination!

What We Will Be Making:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/74b61b_c56be2050cf04c758c26459559e34b78/360p/mp4/file.mp4

G.I.F of a bouncing ball

Steps

Set up your canvas:

Open the Procreate app.
Create a new canvas and select “Screen Size”.
Select the Tool Icon.
Go to Canvas > Animation Assist. (This will bring up the Frames bar. There will be one blank frame on the bar.)

Go to Canvas > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide. Now you can edit the drawing guide for your visibility preferences. (I recommend making the Grid size 1 inch.)
Select the blue check mark.

Begin your animation:

Click the frame to see its settings. Make the first frame your background.
Draw a little environment for your ball to bounce around in. (I'm just changing the background color and drawing a line.)

Add a frame by selecting “Add Frame”. Now, you can draw your ball on the ground.
Add nine more frames for a total of ten. (You can check how many frames you have in the layers menu.)

Go to your third frame and draw the ball as high as you want it to bounce.
Go to your sixth frame and draw the ball back on the ground.
Go to your eighth frame and draw the ball about halfway between where it started and where it was at its greatest height.
On the tenth frame, draw the ball back on the ground.

(NOTE: Red numbers represent frames - NOT steps)

Congratulations! You’ve drawn all your key frames! Now, we can use those blank frames to make some in-betweens.

Go to your second frame and draw an oval between the ball on the ground and the ball in the air. This shows the movement of the ball going up.
Go to your fourth frame and draw an oval again. This one should be closer to the ball on the ground to show its downward movement.
Go to your fifth frame and squash the ball on the ground. (Use the grid you set up earlier to measure it.)
Go to your seventh frame, and repeat steps 1 and 2 on your remaining empty frames.

Go to your tenth frame and click on the frame to see frame options. Set its duration to three to hold the last frame.

Go to settings and change “Frames Per Second” to ten. This slows down the animation a little

Congratulations again! You’ve completed a simple ball animation. Give yourself a cookie.

Chocolate chip cookies - Illustration by Rayce on Pixabay. — The proffered cookies - Illustration by Rayce on Pixabay

Words to Know:

Frame (Animation Frame): A picture that makes up a video. A series of “frames” creates the illusion of movement.
G.I.F (Graphics Interchange Format): A lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images.
In-between: The frames between the key frames that make the animation smooth.
Key Frame: The frame(s) that visually describe the movement best. These are the visual tools or “keys” for animators to keep up with all the movements they’re drawing.
Cookie: A sweet treat

To learn more animation terms, I recommend checking out the animation glossary by Brush Ninja.

Final Thoughts:

In this article, hopefully, I’ve helped you understand animating in Procreate better. There are so many programs out there, and you don’t necessarily even need a program. (Flipbooks are a thing, too!) I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.

Bye, Bye! ~