Artists have been using (and loving) Procreate on the iPad for over a decade. Since then, the program has undergone numerous updates, but for many years, no dedicated companion programs have complemented it.
Or at least that was until late 2023, when Savage Interactive introduced Procreate Dreams. With its introduction, it was clear they were nowhere near done innovating for those who love to create using the iPad.
Procreate Dreams is a 2D animation app for creating frame-by-frame animation, motion graphics, and more.
But how does it expand on Procreate's existing animation capabilities, and is it accessible for beginners? We'll discover all of that and more together with this deep dive into the latest app from Savage Interactive: Procreate Dreams.
Why Procreate Dreams?
When there are plenty of powerful desktop options for 2D animation, why would anyone choose an iPad app? For starters, the robust capabilities paired with the convenience of a mobile workflow are hard to beat.
Procreate Dreams’ capabilities extend far beyond Procreate's simple frame-by-frame animation features, giving animators who love to draw and paint in Procreate a new way to bring their work to life.
Even if Procreate isn't your primary drawing app, Dreams has its own amazing brush library. It's the same price as Procreate, too, just $12.99, which feels insane for such an advanced app. So let's get into what it can actually do and how you can use it to create amazing animations.
Animation
Your journey begins in the Theater, where your movie projects will live. Tap the ‘+’ icon to begin choosing from common aspect ratios for video content.
Choosing Empty lets you start with a blank timeline in Compose mode. Or you can choose Flipbook, which lets you create entire frame-by-frame animations across multiple drawing Tracks within a single container.
Tracks also function like layers in your timeline, keeping your content organized and orderly. Anything added to tracks, such as Flipbooks, videos, text, and audio, is called Content.
A unique aspect of animating in Procreate Dreams is its three modes: Compose, Perform, and Keyframe.
Compose is used to organize tracks. Perform can be used to record your elements' movements to create automatic keyframes. Keyframe allows you to add, edit, and modify properties over time.
As you work, your Stage shows how your animation playback looks. Anything outside of the Stage is called Backstage. It’s visible to you but is slightly greyed out as your animation plays to show which parts of your scene are visible at any given time.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. Dreams could've been more like simpler animation apps that are easier to pick up and start using. But I think that once you discover how industry-changing this app is for animation, you'll end up loving it. That's what happened for me, at least.
I've been a Procreate user for many years, and I didn't see what was so special about Dreams until I kept playing around with it. You remember the days before the two-finger tap-to-undo was standard, right? (Thanks again for that one, Procreate.) Some things just take more time to get used to.
So don't worry, I've got you covered in the coming sections. You'll find there's a lot of support for artists of all skill levels who want to use Procreate Dreams.
Digital painting and illustration
A huge benefit of working in Procreate Dreams is that you can create with beautiful Procreate Animation brushes. These can be found when you're in your canvas in Draw & Paint mode.
When you're drawing, that's when the Procreate Dreams interface most closely resembles Procreate. You'll have access to Layers, Blend modes, Filters, the Transform tool, and more.
So we have Flipbooks, which are self-contained frame-by-frame animations. But we also have Drawings. You’re able to draw in both, so what’s the difference?
Creating a new Drawing is best for painted elements that will fill the entire length of your movie. These could be backgrounds, structural elements, or objects you want to perform with or modify later with keyframes.
Flipbooks are great for creating frame-by-frame animations on your timeline. They're self-contained and can be moved around in a group. You can add multiple Drawings and Flipbooks to your animation.
This difference really became most apparent to me when I started looking at the animated examples that the app comes loaded with. I encourage you to take a look at the different ways that the movie files are constructed and how the artists use a combination of Flipbooks, Drawings, and other content to create their animations. It's cool to see how each used their own approach while taking advantage of a variety of tools and features to create some pretty amazing animations.
We’ve started to discover similarities between Dreams and Procreate, so let's take a look at how to use the two together to optimize your workflow.
Working with Procreate & imports
Being a Procreate artist who uses Dreams for animation has a lot of perks. You can import your brushes into either program by dragging and dropping them while in a split-screen view. You can also import them from your Files app.
If you're an illustrator or animator who's already started an illustration in Procreate, you can use the same drag-and-drop method to import Procreate files. Simply drag your files into your Timeline. By default, your artwork will appear as a single drawing track, but you can convert your drawing layers into tracks by tapping, holding, and selecting from the context menu.
Procreate Dreams is perfect for when you're ready to push your work beyond simple GIFs and single-object animations. Not only can you create 2D animations, but you also have precise control with keyframes and unique modes that let you create more fluidly.
If you have images, videos, or audio you want to incorporate into your animations, they're easy to import into Procreate Dreams as well. To add them, you can tap ‘+’ under the Create menu.
Similar to video editing apps on your phone, you can adjust the duration of your imports by dragging the left- and right-hand handles to where you want them.
Importing audio is one of the things that make Procreate Dreams a standout animation program. Audiophiles will love being able to adjust audio volume with keyframes to control how it fades in and out at any point in your animation.
Dreams makes it easy for animators and artists to bring in different assets to create animations, which is something I enjoyed seeing. Procreate users like me don't have to worry about our favorite brush being left behind, and we get to fall in love with the new brushes they created for animation. The inclusion of audio is definitely part of what makes Dreams feel like a one-stop shop for animating on your iPad.
And if you’re a type nerd like me, you’ll love what you can do with the Text tool.
Working with text
Procreate Dreams supports the following font formats: .otf, .ttf, and .ttc. There is a classic text tool that can be accessed through the Create menu by pressing the ‘+’.
The text settings and menu appear as they do in Procreate, where you can change the typeface, open your keyboard to edit the text, and change the color. Text appears as individual pieces of content on tracks like Drawings.
To transform it, you can keyframe text in the app. You'll start by selecting Keyframe at the bottom of the screen to enter Keyframe mode. Select your Keyframe type by selecting Move, and then select your motion type with Warp, Move and Scale, or Distort. You can also animate your text in Perform mode and move it along your canvas to create complex animations by just moving it.
This is a major win for type nerds like me, because animating text is usually a chore on a desktop. Procreate Dreams makes it easy to achieve impressive results quickly thanks to these features. I like that I don't have to think hard about how to animate text in the app, especially since it's such a large part of my creative expression as a lettering artist.
Next, let's look at how to express yourself with gestures and touch.
Gestures & features
Procreate has long been an innovator in the world of gestures for the iPad. And because they’re so good, you’ll find a lot of the same gestures in Procreate and Procreate Dreams, like two-finger tap to undo and three-finger tap to redo. These gestures that many of us digital artists have gotten used to are really what move the needle for iPad animators.
Giving animators precision control over their timeline, clips, and content is what makes Procreate Dreams a touch-first 2D animation app. And they innovated these features further to give artists the best experience with its interface.
Procreate Dreams features a two-finger slide gesture to pan in any direction on the Timeline, Stage, or Canvas. Pinching to zoom out and spreading your fingers to zoom in works anywhere on the Timeline, Stage, or Canvas. And trust me, you can zoom in really close. So no matter which effects or changes you've added to your content, you can zoom in to see each one and make edits when you need to.
Flicking your finger left on the timeline will take you back to the beginning of your movie playback. When you’re ready, you can four-finger tap to preview your movie in fullscreen. Features like these are why Procreate Dreams received the Design Award for innovation.
If you've determined that these gestures and features don't fit how you like to work, you can simply toggle them off. Dreams also offers customizable keyboard support. I appreciate the time and effort that go into creating not just cutting-edge tools but also experiences. Procreate Dreams has already had a major update after just two years because they don't believe in delivering anything half-baked. I applaud their dedication to creativity and the community of artists who use their programs.
Learning & community
Procreate already has a large and engaged artist community, and now, with Procreate Dreams, they have the opportunity to deepen their community of lovers of illustration and animation.
Procreate spotlights its community of artists on social media by sharing artwork, fun challenges, and prompts. When you post your work to social media, use the hashtags #procreate and #procreatedreams for a chance to be featured by Procreate's main accounts.
Procreate also shares great tutorials on how to use their programs, and whenever there are major updates, they post comprehensive overviews on their YouTube channel. If you’re looking for in-depth descriptions of its tools and features, the Procreate Dreams Handbook is an excellent resource to bookmark.
They've also championed human creativity at every turn and have made it clear to users that AI is not part of their vision for their apps. This definitely means a lot to me as an artist who is often thinking about what the inclusion of AI in so many of our creative tools means for the future of art.
Organization, file management, & cloud storage
You can save your movie files to iCloud, so they're accessible on any device. If you're not sure whether you already have this setting enabled for saving to iCloud, it's in your iPad settings. Navigate to your apps, scroll down to Procreate Dreams, tap Document Storage, and select iCloud Drive.
Files can also be copied to iCloud Drive by pressing and holding a file thumbnail in the Theater, then selecting Copy to iCloud Drive. As someone who has lost all of their Procreate files in the past, I encourage you to use an iCloud workflow to protect your amazing creations.
One thing you can’t protect against is file deletion. Similar to Procreate, there is no recovery folder for deleted files. The program warns you that deleting files can’t be undone, so proceed with caution.
To organize your project files, go to the Theater, tap ‘Select’, choose any file, and select ‘New Folder’. You can also use ‘Select’ to delete and duplicate files in bulk. This differs from Procreate's Stack feature and reflects more traditional file organization. Folders are easy to rename, but can't be placed or created within existing folders.
These features are the less shiny and interesting ones, but when they're not there, you notice. Knowing where your work is at a glance is key, and as a new Procreate Dreams user, I feel like I can start fresh with keeping my files in order. I personally prefer traditional folders to stacks, because I think they look cleaner and more organized. The one thing I wish Dreams had was the ability to search for files by name, date modified, and other criteria. Once you start accumulating files, this feature becomes more important.
Exporting & platform compatibility
Procreate Dreams, like Procreate, was designed for the iPad and Apple Pencil. They’re amazing tools that have demonstrated their excellence for wide forms of creativity.
Since Dreams’ debut in late 2023, we've already seen significant advances in the iPad, with more powerful M-series chips each year. That means faster performance and greater capacity for complex tasks that the iPad can manage, which is a win for artists.
As a general rule, your experience in the app will vary based on your iPad model, with most newer models being able to handle up to 200 content tracks and video tracks up to 4K. Procreate has an iPad compatibility guide that you can reference for best practices.
Your resolution will be set to 4K by default, but you can scale down as you need by tapping the 4K icon. When choosing a resolution at the start of your project, consider the context of your animation. Will it be for social media or large screens? It’s important to keep in mind, as it will affect your file size when it’s time to export.
Procreate Dreams supports the following export formats: .mp4, .mov, .drm, PNG, JPG, TIFF, TGA, and BMP. This covers exports for movies and image sequences.
The .drm format is the Procreate Dreams format, which is ideal for sharing with other Procreate Dreams users. You can export from the Theater by pressing and holding any of your Projects or from your movie by going to the Movie settings. You also have the option to export the current frame of your project instead of the whole video.
Dreams offers users a nice variety of options for exporting their work. I liked that you can go into your project and further adjust your export settings under the Advanced Export menu. This lets you change your format, resolution, playback type, and more. It's a bit more granular, and you can playback your entire project in the export window as well.
FAQs
Is Procreate better than Procreate Dreams for frame-by-frame animation?
If you're looking to create something like a looping GIF or don't need something with a lot of layers, Procreate will be enough. Procreate Dreams doesn't have the layer limit that Procreate does, and it supports audio, making its capabilities more robust. The iPad also supports other great apps for creating frame-by-frame animation. But if you already use Procreate for illustrations, the move to Dreams makes the most sense.
Is Procreate Dreams for beginners in animation?
If you enjoy illustrating in Procreate, you'll probably have an easier time creating in Procreate Dreams. Either way, there is a bit of a learning curve depending on your previous experience with animation. There are easier iPad apps you can explore for animation, especially if you want to start with simple concepts. However, features like performing and keyframes are a fun way to start animating without prior experience. If you want to focus on the very basics, it can be helpful to start in Procreate.
What's the difference between 2D and 3D animation?
2D animations use drawn lines and colors to create characters, objects, and elements. 3D animation requires the use of 3D modeling software or apps that let you sculpt or build characters and objects in 3D. If you're interested in 3D modeling, there are several iPad apps to help you get started.
Can I use my Procreate brushes in Procreate Dreams?
Yes! Your Procreate brushes can be imported into Procreate Dreams by simply dragging and dropping any of your libraries into Dreams in a split-screen view. This also works for the special animation brushes in Dreams. Want even more brushes to enjoy? These great Procreate brushes are free to download.
What's a keyframe?
A keyframe defines a state of change between two points in your animation. This can be used for position, scale, opacity, and more. It's as simple as starting at one point on your timeline, choosing an Action, then choosing another point and changing the value or action type. These changes between those points are what create an animation.
Final thoughts
Procreate Dreams is a powerful program, and you can do a lot more with it than you can animating in Procreate alone. It offers illustrators and animators who love Procreate the chance to expand their creativity without leaving the Procreate ecosystem.
But even as a Procreate user for many years, I found navigating through Dreams a little challenging. If you invest the time to learn it, it’s a lot of fun. Especially in Perform mode. Quit too soon, and you’ll miss out on how much it can do.
