INTRODUCTION
(24/11/2023) launch version
Procreate Dreams is out! The hype is real! We see a lot of commotion about it both online and offline, on youtube or reddit. Animation wizards like Havtza and Aaron Blaise have worked in the app to create mesmerising animations. But what you want to know is — is it worth it?
It is hard to find a decent review of the product and even harder today to find expert opinions. I am an animator and a product designer (weird combo I know), animating for 4+ years now both in 3d and 2d. I am animating in Procreate and Callipeg for a few years now so I wanted to give some honest feedback on the app.
Want to make it clear these are my personal views, and I have great respect for the Procreate team which is why I am making this. There is great potential for the app to become something awesome one day and I want to see that happen.
Ok so here is my review of PROCREATE Dreams. The article is separated into four parts:
1. GOOD
2. BAD
3. MISSING FEATURES
4. VERDICT
5. SHOULD YOU BUY
Hop in! ✌
THE GOOD
- great ui (flipbook option is user-friendly)
- drawing feels good
- grouping frames is incredibly useful in the timeline
- grouping layers in one frame is an amazing possible feature
- changing onion skins is very easy and intuitive
- importable brushes and art from native Procreate is amazing
- animatable filter effects are fantastic
-non destructive workflow
- easy to animate mesh deforms
- clipping mask, layer mask and blending modes — woah
- beginner friendly features (transform tools, easing, performance mode)
- documentation is really good
- drawing outside the borders is an excellent feature
THE BAD
- no speed graph (big deal)
- no quickshape from Procreate (yet)
- preview from blending modes still is not good enough (single frame looks different from animated and from final)
- no tween frames (create in-betweens between selected frames)
- clunky interaction (example: hold one finger on screen while moving a frame to push it to hold frame)
- fill in works only inside the layer (some apps allow to fill above the line layer to have both)
- cannot reorder layers inside a frame group (yikes)
- no cycle ( repeat animation ) but have to duplicate
- really convoluted ui (a lot of googling required)
- no merging layers
- export options lacking ( no export to AE like Callipeg, no advanced export just png-s or video)
- few buggy limits in the app right now and crashing on older ipads
- you have to keyframe everything (cant change opacity on group with two clicks but have to animate it)
- if you want to move multiple frames, you have to group them, move them, and ungroup them
- missing bloom/glow feature
- no distort or deform on groups
- no keyboard shortcuts (as far as I know)
MISSING FEATURES
- fill in new layer
- reorder layers
- export options
- cycle animation
- bloom
- quickshape
- tween selected frames
- mass frame edits in general
- reordering layers in a frame
- merge layers
- magnet on/off
- interactions with groups
- better file organization (folders, scenes)
VERDICT
I think Dreams is off to a great start with a budget friendly animation app, even though in its current state
it is lacking a lot of features. Other apps like Callipeg or Clip are still way more usable for fbf animation,
but
Dreams has potential to change the game thanks to grouping frames and layers. They have a long way to go though.
If they fix the slight bugs, and add a lot of needed features, it might become the best app for animating that I would use in production. As it stands, it is a fun app for shorter animation work with a potential to become more. If you are serious about 2d animation, I would say there are other better affordable tools on the market for animating on the ipad. This one needs a bit more time in the oven. That said, it has great potential to become something amazing one day.
