The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023
Procreate Dreams lets you animate by performing — touch records your motion as keyframes
Procreate's iPad animation app turns gestures into keyframes in real time — multitouch timeline, no subscription, one-time price.
Procreate · Savage Interactive
What it had to solve
After 12 years of its best-selling iPad illustration app, Procreate wanted animation tools anyone could use, in an industry that had largely moved to subscriptions.
How it works
In 2023, Procreate — the studio behind the best-selling paid iPad illustration app — released Procreate Dreams, a 2D animation app whose headline feature is called Performing: instead of setting abstract keyframes, you move, scale, rotate, warp or filter your artwork with your fingers or Apple Pencil while the movie plays, and the app records your actions as keyframes in real time.
The app wraps that interaction in a multitouch timeline that mixes drawing, cel animation, keyframing, video editing and compositing in one place, with realtime rendering so there is no waiting for previews, plus 4K workflows and support for all original Procreate brushes. Procreate described it as a tool that would 'forever change the way creatives animate' and let anyone respond to their project as it plays.
Procreate Dreams launched globally on November 22, 2023 for a one-time $19.99 purchase — a deliberate contrast to the subscription pricing that The Verge noted had become the industry norm. The launch was covered as a major moment for iPad creativity, and its official page still lists it today as a paid-once app with no subscription.
Why it lands
- Performing removes the abstract step of animation: your hands already know how to move the artwork, so the tool records the performance instead of teaching keyframe math.
- One multitouch timeline collapses drawing, animation, editing and compositing, letting a single artist stay in one creative flow.
- Realtime rendering means the artist sees the motion instantly, turning animation into an interactive, playful loop.
- A one-time price — not a subscription — matched the audience's loyalty and stood out in a market The Verge described as subscription-saturated.
- Twelve years of Procreate's brush ecosystem gave Dreams an instant library of familiar, high-quality tools.
What it did
Procreate claimed Performing would 'forever change the way creatives animate'; The Verge covered the launch as a rare one-time-purchase app in a subscription-fatigued market, and animators flooded social media with demo videos on launch day.
What you can take
Match the tool's core gesture to the user's natural motion: recording a performance is easier to learn than abstract keyframes, and one-time pricing respects the community that built the brand.
Since then
Procreate Dreams became a staple of the iPad animation community, and Procreate kept iterating on it — adding Apple Pencil Pro barrel-roll rotation for performing, live filters, and deeper performance controls. Its official product page now lists it at a one-time $12.99 with no subscription, and Performing has been widely imitated as the model for gesture-driven animation. The original Procreate remains one of the best-selling paid iPad apps, and Dreams extended the same paid-once philosophy to a second creative category.
Sources
- Procreate Dreams
- Procreate's latest iPad app aims to make animation easier for everyone
- Procreate Dreams is now available to download
- Performing — Procreate Dreams Handbook
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