Procreate is a great tool for drawing and illustrating. Adding an element of animation to your work is a great skill that you can add to your repertoire. Animation in Procreate is easy and doesn’t take much more learning than using Procreate itself, but there are different techniques to ensure a fluid animation.

In this article, we'll show you how to create a motion animation in Procreate.

How to Create Motion in an Animation

When creating an animation, it isn’t always enough to just have a new frame with a new object position. You need to draw each frame with realistic, but exaggerated, movements to truly show the motion involved. We'll be using the stretch and squash technique to show the movements of our subject.

We’ll be using Procreate for iPad and an Apple Pencil, but you can follow along with the tutorial if you are using other programs or drawing equipment. We’ll make an animation of a ball bouncing on a hard surface.

Related: New to Procreate? Here Are Tips to Start Using Layers

Draw Your Animation Scene

We’re not going to jump right in with the animation yet. First, you need an idea of the scene you’re going to animate. To save on complexity, we’re going to do a simple horizon line with a blue-sky background and a gray concrete floor where the ball is going to bounce.

To begin with, on the first layer, draw out a pencil sketch of your scene. Then, draw about five or six marker points for where your ball is going to be in each animation frame. You must give enough space for the ball to change shape as it moves through the motions.

We’re going to use a casual, rough style for this animation, as it gives it a fun energy. On a new layer, draw your background scene in detail. Keep your sketch layer as the top layer, so you can see it as you color and draw your background scene.

Using Layers for Animation

To create an animation, Procreate uses each layer as an animation frame. Since the background will stay the same, you can lock the background layer. Open a new layer for your first ball position.

Procreate illustration showing a landscape drawing with an orange ball mid-air

Whether you want to draw a perfect circle or a rougher, less precise circle is up to you and your style. We’re going to first draw the ball in a midair position.

Open a new layer and move it below the first ball layer. Draw a second ball in the position immediately below the first one. This should be a similar size and shape as the first ball; you can draw it by hand or simply duplicate the first layer and move the position.

Procreate screen showing a landscape with 3 orange balls above one another.

For the bottom ball—the one hitting the ground—it needs to squash. To make this squash more fluid in the animation, the second-to-bottom ball should begin to squash a little first. Draw a similar-sized shape as the previous two balls, but make this one slightly wider and a little shorter.

Procreate screenshot showing a landscape with 4 balls above one another

The ball hitting the ground is going to be the most squashed out of them all. On a new layer, draw the final squashed ball in quite an exaggerated squashed motion. Make sure the layer is the bottom-most layer.

Procreate screen showing landscape with 6 balls one on top of the other

For the highest two ball frames, you’re going to do the opposite: stretch. The highest ball will be exaggerated with a long and thin stretch, whereas the ball just below it will only be slightly stretched.

Once you are happy with where all the balls are in your layers, you need to add shadows onto the ground for each frame. This will add more depth to your final animation by showing the shadow change with the height of the ball.

To add the shadows, add a new layer below the ball you’re drawing the shadow for. Draw a dark gray circle on the ground in the shape and relative to the size of the ball’s height. Since we’re drawing the shadow on the ground, we’re going to use a rougher brush: Aurora from the Artistic category.

Related: What Is Adobe Animate, and What Can You Do With It?

Unlike the frames with the balls moving position, the shadow will always be in the same place, just a different size or shade. You can toggle the visibility on other layers to see how best to draw each shadow per ball.

procreate screen showing shadows and layers

Our simple technique is on a new layer underneath each ball, simply draw around the ball in the shadow color and color it in. Then click the selection tool—the white arrow—and move the shadow drawing down to where the shadow will be on the ground. Do this for each ball and layer. The end result should have a layer palette with alternating ball and shadow layers, and you should have an image with a pile of shadows at the bottom.

Tip: Naming your layers will help with any confusion.

Photo showing Procreate merging layers

Once all the shadow layers are drawn and have a ball layer to match with, merge the pairs of layers together. Using two fingers (one on each layer), push your fingers together to merge the layers. Now, instead of one layer for each shadow and one layer for each ball, you’ll have one layer containing a shadow and a ball for each ball.

Screen of Procreate showing textures on illustration

The premise of the animation is complete here. If you want to add any further elements to your drawing, such as shadows on the balls, now is the time to do it. You can delete the sketch layer now as you no longer need it.

Using Procreate Animation Assist

Procreate animation assist turned on

To turn your layered image into an animation, you need to turn on Procreate’s Animation Assist toggle. Click the Actions menu (the spanner in the toolbar) and toggle on the Animation Assist. This brings up an animation timeline at the bottom of your screen.

Since Animation Assist doesn’t know that your background layer is to be the background of the entire animation, you need to double-click on the background frame in the animation toolbar. This brings up a Frame options menu. Toggle on where it says Background. This will set your background as the background for the entire animation.

Click the Play button on the animation timeline to see how your animation looks at first. Does it do what you want it to?

Procreate Animation settings

To change the speed, loop style, or frame styles, click Settings. For a continuous loop animation (to make the ball continue bouncing), click Ping-Pong. Using Onion skin frames gives the animation more fluidity, which makes the ball flow seamlessly up in the air and back down again. The Onion skin opacity will affect this, too, so it's worth playing around with these features.

Changing the frames per second will change how quickly your animation runs through each frame. If you’re happy with the speed, then leave it alone. If you want it faster, move the bar to the right, or for slower, move it to the left.

You can press Play between any changes you make to see how it affects your animation. Once you’re happy, you can save it.

To save your animation, click the Actions toolbar and hit the Share button. To save it as a moving animation rather than a flat–and useless– image, you have the choice between GIF, PNG, MP4, and HEVC.

Animate Your Future Drawings

Procreate brings a great new avenue to digital art. Now you’ve experienced the fun of Procreate’s Animation Assist, you can use it to add an extra feature to your illustrations or add animations to videos or webpages. Experiment with your new skill and see how far you can work the animation magic.