Why Should Artists be Excited About the Launch of Procreate Dreams

As a working Illustrator, and Top Teacher on Skillshare in Illustration and Animation categories, you can imagine how excited I was when I first watched the Procreate Dreams Launch Keynote a few short months ago. Procreate for iPad is one of the most popular tools for Illustration and animation, which made illustration accessible to many aspiring artists. The original Procreate app does provide simple animation functionalities, which I also taught on Skillshare, but Procreate Dreams totally blew anything out of the water.

The Procreate Dreams app itself will officially launch on 22nd Nov, 2023. While we anticipate its arrival, I thought I’d offer some key takeaways from an artist’s perspective

Reasons Artists Should Be Excited

High-Speed Performance:
- For folks who have worked with other animation programs before, you know that they require a lot of patience, as the rendering process can be quite, s l o w. Procreate Dreams is noted for its exceptional speed (well, at last from the launch event) outpacing other iPad and even desktop animation apps. This speed ensures that users are not delayed by rendering times or RAM previews, allowing for a seamless creative process.
Revolutionary Timeline with Multi-Touch and Apple Pencil Support:
- Most visual artists are, visual. The timeline in Procreate Dreams is designed to be highly intuitive and user-friendly. I suspect Procreate Dreams is going to make animation a much more accessible skill to the general public. It supports multi-touch gestures and the Apple Pencil, allowing for easy navigation, zooming, and editing. The timeline automatically adjusts looping based on the zoom level, and its design is streamlined to minimize interface clutter.
Performing Mode for Live Animation:
- Instead of fighting with the keyframes (animator), or worse, having to learn coding/expressions, Procreate Dreams allows users to animate through direct manipulation, creating animations based on feeling and emotion at the fingertips. By recording movements and transitions live, users can animate their characters in real-time, syncing with music or other audio elements. These capabilities make it possible to create animation more intuitively, and I bet it is also more pleasant to watch.
Advanced Drawing and Painting Capabilities:
- As a professional brush maker of Procreate Brushes, I am particularly excited about this. Procreate Dreams incorporates the full library of Procreate's renowned brushes, emphasizing their texture and responsiveness. You also have the ability to add 3rd party brushes to the app, just like the original Procreate app. The app is compatible with all existing Procreate brushes, including those from the community and professional brush makers.
Next-Generation Painting Engine:
- The app features a new painting engine that supports ultra-high resolutions, going far beyond Procreate's 16K limit. Procreate Dreams can handle documents up to 1 million by 1 million pixels, allowing for unprecedented detail and scale in animations without sacrificing core functionalities and speed. That is, innovation, friends.

https://skl.sh/3Ls8mwH — Animation with Procreate (OG)

This **class**, taught by the author/aritst, covers 5 beginner-friendly animation techniques on the Procreate app on iPad. This class is great for illustrators and letterers who want to add life to their artwork.

Take the class for free

Audio Engine for Layered Soundtracks:

Audio quality these days can make or break a video. The app includes a new audio engine designed for performance, supporting the layering and real-time editing of multiple audio tracks with low latency. This feature adds significant depth to animations by allowing seamless integration of music and sound effects.

Video Editing and Layering:
- Procreate Dreams supports high-quality video formats like ProRes and includes essential video editing tools. Users can combine video and audio for engaging content and utilize the app's capabilities to enhance videos with animation and effects.
New File Format for Animation:
- The app introduces a new file format tailored for animation, bundling video, audio, and drawing assets into one file. This format allows for the instant opening of complex files and retains the entire undo history, making the creative process more flexible and efficient.
Privacy Commitment:
- This technically is not technical, but very reassuring. The keynote highlighted the company's commitment to user privacy, affirming that Procreate Dreams does NOT use image diffusion models, collect user data, or require internet connectivity for its functions.
Affordability and Accessibility:
- Set to be available for a one-time purchase of $19.99, Procreate Dreams aims to be an affordable and accessible tool for animators and artists of all skill levels.