Procreate Day 3: Animation

This day focuses on the animation features of Procreate. Animation is a pretty complicated process that can be confusing to a lot of students, so do your best to keep it simple and accessible.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Know the animation tools in Procreate
  • Turn on drawing guides
  • Use the transform tool in Procreate 
  • Create an animation in Procreate

Outline

Drawing Guides

Animation Assist

Transform

Practice

Example Lesson Plan

Remember this is just a sample lesson plan to help you. You should make your own lesson plan.

Intro: (5min)

  • Has anyone made anything in Procreate since last time? Would you like to show the class?
  • Question of the day: what is your favorite animated film
  • Who has already done some animation in Procreate?

Hook: Welcome animation

Disclaimer: I am not an animator, not by any stretch of the imagination, so I can’t teach you much about animation techniques

Drawing Guides (5 min)

  • Wrench > Canvas > Drawing Guide
  • Edit drawing guide, there are a bunch of different options:
    • 2D grid- classic grid
    • Isometric
    • Perspective for a vanishing point
    • You can change guide colors at the top
  • Go back to 2D grid, turn on assisted drawing, done
  • Notice how it helps you stay on the lines of the guides
    • Symmetry- replicates what you are drawing on the other side
    • You can create more segments
    • Radial symmetry

Activity: (3 Minutes) create a mandala using radial symmetry

Have you ever made a flip book before? What’s the idea behind a flip book?

Animation Assist Options (10 min)

  • Wrench > Canvas > Animation Assist
  • Timeline
    • made up of frames
      • frames are layers, or groups in procreate
      • The first frame can be set as a background
      • The last frame can be set as foreground
    • Settings
      • Frames per second, adjust this to get the proper speed
      • Onion skin frames
        • What is Onion skin? Why do you think onion skins would be useful to you?
    • Color secondary frames, makes things that have happened red and things that have not happened green
    • Play settings: one shot, loop, pingpong

Activity: Swirlies animation (10 min)

  • We are going to animate some swirlies!
  • Start a new color palette and pick some colors
  • Add a frame, draw the start of a swirly, just like a dot
  • Settings>Onion skin frames, show previous frames you drew as a reference
  • Increase the frames to show every frame you have done, or just the last couple frames
  • Opacity makes them more or less see through
  • Why do you think onion skins would be useful to you?
  • Add another layer, draw on top of your onion skin and make it a little longer this time
  • Make it draw itself into a swirly as you go, eventually start making them fade away by drawing them shorter and shorter while starting new swirlies
  • Activity: (5 mins) add more frames and continue the swirlies

Transform

  • Create a new canvas
  • Who remembers how to duplicate in procreate from last time?
  • Copy and paste is super helpful in animation!!
  • Show stick figure animation, how I used copy and paste
  • Draw a stick figure
  • Swipe down with three fingers> duplicate
  • Makes a new frame with the exact same image, you can make small tweaks and erase limbs and redraw them slightly to indicate motion

Activity: (7 mins) Continue using transform feature to animate a person doing something, or animate another shape or word if you feel more comfortable

Exporting

  • Wrench > Share > bottom options, gif is what I use
  • You can also see your drawing time-lapse
  • Wrench > Time-lapse Video

Exporting an Animation

  • Wrench > Share > bottom options

Seeing your drawing time-lapse

  • Wrench > Video

Conclusion:

  • I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about animation in Procreate today. 
  • Next time we will be learning how to work with pictures in procreate