I preordered as soon as I could. I still have a lot of faith in the dev team to make this app better. Currently using it with Procreate basic, and there are still things I really love about it! Like you said, the performance mode is really great, and what sold me on the app initially. The app is still fresh, and I wish they waited a little longer to release, but I still feel like this will be a great tool in the future.
Definitely agree! It's a shame that there's a lot that needs to be updated atm with the app, because it's definitely a boon for a lot of artists that need a well-made and easily accessible animation apps (either for free or a one-time purchase option). At least there's also ToonSquid and Callipeg that are also easily accessible for now (and I've seen some animators take scenes they make on regular Procreate and combine them in a video editing app).
It was when I started using it with Procreate basic it really started to shine for me. It is by no means perfect, but I really do think it has potential!
Oh god NO LASSO TOOL?! That’s already a deal-breaker for me 😭 Ngl I had the same problem with the fill tool in base Procreate, but it usually happens if you already transformed tool’ed the line or with a blurry brush and sometimes the higher tolerance bleeds around the white spots and into the rest of the canvas 😭
I believe there might be like something serious going on about the lasso tool bcuz procreate has it and they know how important it is, I bought the app to try to help the devs if money is what is missing and I hope they will fix those things soon
I highly recommend Toon Squid!! lots of features (for eg. symbols, camera layer, an actual lasso tool etc) it's like flash and toon boom had a baby but in a price that's affordable (no subscriptions!)
Toon Squid is what Dreams should have been. What's worse is it was only developed by one person, which is insane to me. It's hardly believable that Toon Squid is far more polished and intuitive compared to Procreate Dreams when it was created by one developer. Perhaps Procreate's development team need to hire him or something.
As a toon squid user I agree it is really good the only thing I’d say it needs is effect features like blurring and other options but besides that it is way better
As a toonsquid user who switched from flip clip but uses procreate for any of my backdrops and such I can heavily vouch for it. What’s also awesome is that I’ve seen people switch over to toonsquid after using more niche programs like Flipnote3D because it has the same brushes!
Question, did that update ever release :3 I'm trying to find beginner animation software for an Ipad. I'm upgrading from a phone and a breaking down dollar store pen + Flipaclip lol, but not sure what software to use (or if I should just get a drawing tablet that can animate)
@@Rucksoxy i don’t believe the update has released yet :/ but in the meantime i’ve been using rough animator on the ipad and it works very well for me if you wanna try it out!!
@@khv12345 Alright, I'll try that out! There's this pretty affordable app that peaked my interest tho, it's called Toonsquid. I'm not sure how good it is but I've been told it's like a better Procreate Dreams (with a lasso tool haha)
And I thought that lassoing a thing in base procreate and then it losing chunk of its quality by moving said selection without even resizing was bad jfc they love making my drawings blurry in every program huh
proceate isn't vector based, so it's kinda to be expected. that's a big talking point of it's competitors & the reason things like both Photoshop *and* Illustrator exist. different tools for different jobs. i guess you kind of get used to it & start drawing things you know you'd only make smaller 😅 it's not ideal, but i'm not surprised based on Procreate's programming
@@Twiddle_things i assume they weren’t talking about the zooming thing in dreams but about the loss of quality when moving objects around thing in base procreate
because of you, i got it because it seemed like the best in terms of cost, and ive done a few basic projects of my own as well (mostly for college) and i definately agree with everything you said, aside from one thing you didnt mention (not sure if anybody else has experienced it) i find playback can be a little sketchy as well, where some of the frames appear to flash in the wrong order when checking everything, but in the rendered product they are fine, justa minor visual thing that ive noticed while using it
It's kinda goofy to me that the stuff Dreams gets wrong is stuff it already gets right as a drawing software. You'd think it's issues would be in the animation part, since they're new to that as a company. I don't pretend to know how programming works, but if all the tools for drawing already exist, why couldn't they just take all that work they'd already done and build the "animation" parts around it?
Yeah, I wonder about that too! Wonder if there's something that happens with the code that affects iffy it is when it's squashed/stretched with a lasso tool (since the zoom in features make the sketch blurry)?
The impression I got from some of the answers the account was giving people on Twitter on release day is that they’re prioritizing the 4K canvas size over any of these tools. They’re limited either by the processing power of the ipad or by their own code’s efficiency, so the tools as they are in Procreate would just crash dreams. It is insane to me that they are insisting on 4K, which is frankly almost never necessary for animation and only serves to inflate the file size, when they can’t even get it to look crisp and clean in 4K because of the weird resolution scaling. I really hope they figure out how to do this but it frustrates me that the literal perfect app would just be Dreams with the default Procreate drawing tools imported but that apparently isn’t possible
It's not a problem with the code itself but the design. My hypothesis is they don't have full time artists as part of their team to make sure it's usable. Who knows what their process is, but if they had a single person actually using their tool to work, all of these things would come up on their very office and their priorities would straighten up.
Another thing that stuck out to me was the stablization. I usually work on very low stablization since it slows down the brush, and while procreate dreams has a stability setting, it works for all brushes at once and does not turn down all the way. The lowest stability setting at least on the brushes i use still are super stabilized. I dont know if they fixed it yet but i was honestly disappointed but still holding hope for the future 😭
i dont care if it doesnt have the flaws yet i literally understand it 100 times better than flipaclip for some reason i have never worked out flipaclip i just dont like it. i’ll keep using procreate dreams for animatics and once they add these features i can finally feel like i have clean animation also good editing on this video i’ll sub lol frik i cant fype ohy yny phoeneee
@@AnimationonaBudget Definitely agree! It's a shame because it would be a popular app otherwise (since it can be worked on a phone as well as an iPad). Absolutely hate it when apps that do well end up going the subscription route - alienating their customers that can't afford/keep up with subscription services shows their focus is more on greed than on offering more artists a chance to animate... 0_0
Im a classical animator, I am honestly loving it. The lasso tool is the only thing I really, really need. The undo bugg for me happens after I undo 4 times, Yes it is annoying, but by understanding this I can avoid the hassle of erasing all my lines less. I do find a lot of what you say annoying, but still, of all the animation programs I have used on the I pad it is personally the one I find most comfortable. And I just love to draw on my I pad more than in my tablet....Im also kind of sick of Adobe's abusive policies, so I am fine with procreate, clip studio, blender, etc.
i'm glad procreate dreams exists, i was a preorder/day 1 user and i know they have it in them to fix it... i just sure hope it's soon, because oh man. there are lots of little issues that build up really fast. the lasso tool is number one, of course, because manually erasing everything and having to correct the wonky fill tool without being able to use a selection fill is SO rough (especially as someone who has arm issues! that's an unnecessary physical strain and workflow killer!) there is no way i'm making another big project in it until they fix their app, that's for sure
I really appreciate your review on this. I just got dreams after using regular procreate for a few months and wanted to see how the animation tool was. Your review hit every nail on the head from my experience these past few weeks. Thanks for doing your due diligence!! 💜
hi! student animator here. some of these “features” are standard in the animation specific program i use, toonboom harmony. it’s a very standard program for the industry. the new drawing making only one frame and not being able to merge layers, as well as onion skin referencing frames are all normal. the PROBLEM is that dreams looks (because i haven’t used it myself) like it’s insanely unintuitive to use. i can just. grab the little tab of the onion skin on the timeline and drag it to where i want it if it’s too short, for example. that doesn’t seem to be the case here. this seems half baked at best. also that resolution problem is like. absolutely awful what the hell
dreams is SO unintuitive i can confirm. that's kind of a procreate thing in general, lots of features are kind of hidden in both apps, but it's so much worse in dreams because of the added complexity of it being an animation app. it looks nice and sleek and minimalist, but the user experience is Rough until you just. get used to it. and look up how to do things because it is not obvious.
@@Bobzora yeah i use procreate. it took me a long time to get used to it and i still don’t really like the lack of blending options. but that’s just how it is, i like being able to draw digitally on the go
@@lilyofluck371don’t take things out of context please….there is no harassment done with emoji kiss. Blaming him for laughing is very absurd and unbecoming of you. A simple emoji kiss is not anything but a way to show his love for knowledge from his teacher or so. Please refrain from reading too much meaning to emojis.
Procreate Dreams is great and could end up being one of the best animation apps for people if it does eventually fix its problems, and let’s hope it’s soon. I own the app, and the lasso tool being non-existent really annoys me 😭💔 Being unable to move a drawing or a specific part of it causes a lot of problems, say I messed up an arm placement and want to position it a little, without the lasso tool, I’d have to completely redraw the arm. It is the worst problem by far. Procreate Dreams defiently has BIG potential. Though if they want that, they’re going to need to fix their problems ASAP as it completely ruins the app experience.
Can’t agree more! I’m not even an animator I’ve taken up storyboarding and the lack of certain tools like adjusting the frame lengths are frustrating. I hope that alongside learning the app as well as awaiting future updates will Improve its quality of life use. Great video!
Definitely agree that Procreate Dreams has potential to be a better animation app once it gets more updates (and hopefully it improves a lot since it would be a major boon for artists that can't afford/keep up with subscription services). Was wondering what you think about ToonSquid and Callipeg as well?
7:18 this is totally unrelated but i got jumpscared when i heard polka pop as background music, and i got jumpscared bc this days i listen to that almost every day-
Also, you cannot warp or distort drawings that have multiple layers. I still resort to ToonSquid and Adobe Fresco for now…They also both have Vector anyways. Interesting app though. Just not complete.
You can, but you have to put all of those layers into the same group first. Ngl, it took me a long time to figure out how powerful grouping in Dreams can be.
@@cleanbeanArt I don’t think we’re talking about the same things. I’m referring to drawing layers (lineart, color, shade and highlight) for a single drawing. If you have these as separate layers but on the same drawing like in normal apps or programs. You cannot warp/distort that drawing because that drawing in the timeline that has multiple drawing layers. It will give you an error message saying “warp cannot be applied to this content” / distort. Idk if this makes sense? It’s been a known thing for awhile now. Only work around for this currently is to duplicate your lineart layer after you’ve completed the animation and color that duplicated lineart layer.
This is the first review ive seen that isnt glazing it like its the best app in existence. the same is with procreate in general. it heavily lacks so many features. but its talked about like its the best app in existence
Omg yes, I got it the day it released and was so confused on how to use it. I waited a couple weeks for RU-vid videos and that helped, but the zoom having an effect on pencil size and quality is ridiculous. I’ve found it hard to use, so I really hope they improve it in future because I was so so excited for it when I heard about it before release (you’re video came out great you’re very talented)
So odd that whilst OG Procreate was championed for how intuitive it’s interface was, Dreams requires you to read its handbook to make sense it’s bizarre workflow.
I did my most recent animation in dreams and it was kind of a nightmare. I sincerely hope that 1.1 update comes out soon and fixes many of these issues.
I pre ordered procreate last year. But I wish I didn’t because I didn’t know how complicated it was until I saw the platform. I use FlipaClip because it’s just easier for me to use. I love Procreate, but I don’t think I’m going to use Procreate Dreams anytime soon
I don’t know why they didn’t just expand on the normal animation feature on procreate 😭 I thought the point of this was to have the same features. Being able to liquefy and warp would make the animating so much easier? I also thought that the innovation of this app was that you could draw and then animate individual things like “rigging” easily and have multiple things animated on different layers/tracks, but atm it’s all so confusing and fiddly
i can’t not believe it’s been near half a year since release and they still haven’t fixed half the main complaints. if it wasn’t ready they should have just put it in beta tbh
I like to think that Dreams biggest saving grace is that you can actually make genuine official looking animations when applying the finishing touches. Like that example they had with the characters floating and holding hands, if you can make stuff like in that dreams then it’s worth the price. But the biggest problem is literally the Drawing part. Which is still insane to imagine that’s the biggest flaw for this app.
I feel like that the best use for it at least for now is using it for those finishing touches or very simple things like animating existing drawings. But as a beginner I found it extremely frustrating even trying to do basic animation exercises in it because the program just doesn't work intuitively at all. It's so hard to believe the same company as procreate made this app because they seemingly overlooked SO much functionality and QOL But
@@sugarskulls2817 One way I'm working around it is by drawing and finishing all the frames in procreate. Import it to dreams and edit the key frames for how long or short I planned the animation to be. And add all the finishing touches afterwards like glow, gaussian blur or that record function. Tedious? Yes. But better than drawing on the official app for now.
You can hire a professional animator to draw everything and make everything look good -there's are the info doing anything that looks good with his program someone who can draw every frame
I'm so looking forward to updates in the future, I'm probably too faithful but I really believe they're working on issues and critiques people have and it'll just get better and better
@@marcgoodrich I can understand that, my thought process is "well the time's gonna pass anyway" so I can stick to dreams waiting for the updates or use a different program until it's got the features I'm missing
I feel soooo seen!😭I kinda wish I would have seen this vid before buying. I recently tried out the app for my latest video and felt like I was going crazy it made the process not as fun and to take longer than need be. The lack of the lasso tool shocked me to my core lol and the lagging became too much. I wanted to talk about it but I was thinking that maybe the app wasn't compatible with my older Ipad or as a newbie in the animation realm I was committing a lot of user error. All the points you made I completely agree with and experienced first hand - I hope they take them into consideration for future updates. Thank you for making this video - It was very thoughtful and thorough!! 💗
For the select tool, you can just export the drawing to procreate and edit then export it back That’s like a 1min of inconvenience but at least you can edit your drawing well
The iPad will be what I use to start practicing animation this year, but after reading feedback on several apps, I decided to go with Toon Squid for the meantime. I will likely end up buying Dreams down the road, simply because I have confidence in the team behind it and the original Procreate. They added update after update to make that thing a formidable software, even letting you paint on 3D models and have very basic 2D animations.
Very good analysis! I have some faith that a lot of the issues will be fixed with time (also I once tweeted about being able to export things with transparent backgrounds and the CEO of Procreate responded saying they want to implement that?? So woo for us emote artists I guess), but yeah currently I only use dreams if it's necessary for the type of animation I'm doing due to all these problems you mentioned
I was planning on actually getting procreate dreams so this video was very helpful! I’m sure that they’ll be updating and fixing a lot of things in the future. But we need that lasso tool immediately, it’s my savior for all my animations and drawing. 😭 Also, I loved how Gregory showed up lol.
The amount of times I’ve tried to use the select tool only to remember its absence is too many times 😔. Also thank you, Gregory wanted to be in the video
thank you for making this!! i was considering getting the app for my birthday (march 18) and you just saved me $20 hajajsa ❤❤ new sub just because of that
I heard Toon Squid is not only cheaper, it has better animation tools in there as well compared to Procreate Dreams. Just wanted to put this comment if anyone wants a different animation app.
A really good video!! You brought up a few things that I didn't even realize myself Two more big issues that I have - one that would be really helpful, and one that would be REALLY helpful: - The lack of a draw-and-hold function. The kind of function base Procreate has where you can, say, draw a line, hold it in place, and it'll straighten. This doesnt exist in Dreams, which makes animating static or rigid objects really tedious - Similar to the lasso (because I think it'll act here as well) is the ability to mass select multiple frames in the editor. Currently, if you want to move frames around in the editor, you have to drag them one at a time, which also includes moving frames out of the way as I don't think there's a way for frames to be pushed around in a cohesive way. This also applies to if you want to change the duration of, add keyfranes to, or make any changes to multiple franes at a time. It can be really, *really* difficult to manage aspects of the animation because of this
i very much agree with you on this, good video, but also holy crap youre in my recommended and i remember u from when i had an animation channel as a kid lmao remember merpkat that me hi O_o
Things I’ve noticed while using it. No lasso No QuickShape No vector brushes Cannot merge layers. Cannot warp/distort if there’s multiple layers. Most of these things are in original procreate which makes no sense. But, toggling back and forth between 2 apps is counterintuitive and wastes a lot of time for me. For now, I use ToonSquid and Adobe Fresco. I recommend these to anyone wanting to animate on an iPad.
It was such a disappointment that you can see the bones for a great animation app but it’s not possible for it to be consistent with anything. I blame the insistence on using gestures for everything instead of normal static buttons.
I was definitely really disappointed by the lack of the lasso tool :( And I hope they add it soon. I havent heard.. Much? in way of updates? But I also haven't been keeping up with news to be fair. I wish they released the app completely finished!! I was so sad by how poor it felt to use. I will say though, I think my first animation made on it was.. A little better without the lasso tool? Because I wasn't relying on it. It felt bouncier. It WAS a nice exercise. I hope they improve it soon!
I think part of the issues are user errors. I add images on a separate track and it works great. It’s not perfect yet. Definitely would like to see the lasso tool and some other features in Procreate but, for $20, no subscriptions, free updates, I’m loving Procreate Dreams.
My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t feel that natural to draw? Idk how to explain it but most digital art software just feels off and kinda robotic to draw with, I love procreate so much cause it’s the only art program I’ve tried that feels so natural to draw with to me But that robotic clunkyness is felt HARD in dreams
i feel like theres afew things you forgot to mention, so ima list em off here. also these are problems i had when using them, so i dont know if anyone has problems with them, so yeah- anyways- first it that zooming in and out of your drawing, also undos, because, they both use two fingers to move, and undo. no brush cursor (i got very used to it, when using just procreate, and i would like to beable to enable it on procreate dreams. also that a lot of the buttons are in different spots, like the way to get out of your animation, isn't at the top corner, but instead beside the name of the animation. and also there being no lasso tool, because i keep on tapping where it is on procreate, just for nothing to happen, making me annoyed, that i cant use the lasso tool. and the fact that if you want to turn your drawing layer around (or well, track.), you have to like- go to move and scale, and you have to tap on one of the corners, just to turn the thing around. like- i had to look up a damn tutorial up, just to know how to turn something. like yeah- its pretty annoying, not actually just being able to automatically see the way to turn something, but instead having to tap something, just to see it. one more thing, is that, when you add a video to an animation, you dont have the option to just- add the sound, and not the video. other than all that, i still think it's decent, and the way to easily animate some stuff, is like cutecut and capcut, and the fact that you only have to buy it once just to use it is nice, so thats nice.
oh yeah, and two more things- i cant seem to import colours or colour palettes from procreate, to procreate dream. and you cant save brush sizes on procreate dreams, like you can on just procreate (i say this, because i tend to always use these four brush sizes [well really just one of them, and its brush size two.] and not being able to have the brush sizes saved on procreate dreams, is annoying, especially when you want to use a different brush size, but you also want to keep the brush size you prefer using.)
The app crashed on me twice when I first started using it and I’ve been too scared to use it since then but I do see it’s potential and I bet it’ll be amazing once all the bugs are fixed and missing features gets added ^^
I’m pretty sure Procreate built it to be their premier pro, so you would start in Procreate create your original scene and then import that scene into procreate dreams. so procreate is more composing tool than an actual nitpicky development for your animation tool. pretty much like building a booklet in Adobe you make your ad and images in Photoshop and illustrator, then composite them into the booklet in indesign. Not a one app for everything app
I used procreate dreams for one day, and what i learned is dont get procreate dreams, at least until updates fix issues. but it needs a complete UI overhaul, rn im still sticking with toonsquid
saying flipaclip is kinda wild. its actually a good animating app as if toon squid was, because its easier to fuction but if you actually want a long and detailed animation, toon is better.
honestly as much as i want to get into fully animating without the hassle, i’d rather just stick with Procreate’s basic animation feature. It’s clean, simple, has all the features of procreate, with the only downside being clunkiness and editing having to be done off app. it’s alright though.
I’m sure these issues will be tackled eventually since procreate (from what iv seen) tends to listen to its buyers but it does suck that they didn’t add basic features that were present in the base app. Regular procreate has all of this stuff and while I’m no app developer you would think they could incorporate already existing functions and adapt them to an animation app. I would have been happy waiting another year if it meant them fixing small bugs and such. Quality over quantity as they say
Just the fact it has audio import and a one time payment makes it already so great. Honestly I could do my animation in procreate and import it into dream for audio and editing and that would be enough
I personally prefer using a less expensive app over investing in a pricey one that may not give me the desired results. It's worth noting that even some of the 'better' apps had some issues in the beginning. As for drawing, I use Procreate, but for animation, I stick to Procreate Dreams (I import my drawings to Procreate Dreams). Please don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to criticize anyone who uses different tools. This is just my personal preference and opinion.
I don't understand why the people they commissioned to make promotional animations for them never gave them any feedback or said anything about all these missing features.
Can you make more Procreate Dreams videos please? I really enjoyed this one, this was equally insightful as it was entertaining. I subscribed, great video! 👍
You have to remember that procreate dreams is being built from the the ground up there will have to be a way to put the lasso tool so that it works on the play head screen even though it has been in production for so long
UGH. I bought PD when it first came out and i was so excited for it. The fact they still havent fixed these issues has me losing trust in this company already. Im glad i already own procreate as i wouldnt buy it with the PD issues. At least the comment section had a suggestion for toonsquid which ive never tried and is at a price point i dont mind impulse buying so wish me luck!
if you select a layer mode on a clipping mask and change the opacity sometimes it will turn back into the ”normal” layer mode everytime you change the opacity ✨
I mean we did just get it, so it’s only gonna get better. Procreate vanilla wasn’t perfect upon release either. I do agree with all your points tho, not having selection tools (besides grouping the frames in the timeline) is very annoying.
The lack of lasso encourages me not to copy paste . There’s ways around it really. I know I’ve created a strategy that’s worked for me 😊 I hope that they update these problems. It feels like having to figure out a math equation.
For me I couldn’t really figure out how to color in without it spreading to all frames, it’s probably just a me thing but using the app is really frustrating
I personally use macromedia flash 8 but I am very glad that procreate dreams is out because I do not want Adobe to have a stranglehold on the market. So I hope it gets good.
I just wish it had every tool procreate does, the lack of a lasso sucks SO hard. It’s not super intuitive to use either, everything being a random gesture that is not shown to you kinda sucks. I have huge lag issues with the color fill and it bothers me so bad. I really hope they improve the app since I can’t afford to get anything else currently.
Alternatives like toonsquid and calipeg currently beat it out for me(one time purchase options on both) , maybe after they implement more features and/or add back all the regular procreate tools it will become better. Dreams is fantastic for motiongraphics, but its very lacking for animating imo. (I did manage to make a flash style animation rig in dreams, so there's potential) I was just disappointed. All I was hoping for was the functions regular procreate with a better layered animation timeline. They spent too much focus on the motion graphics side of things and it feels just unfinished.
as someone who has BAREY used opentoonz and pivot animator this still sounds better than what i am currently using i guess ime will tell if its better or not :)
I already knew to not get Procreate Dreams when it came out, because I knew they were probably putting it out to test the waters and see how it goes. They’re most likely already planning out a newer version with more stuff.
Yes. The undo bug has given me some big scares. 😅 So far I’ve animated only using the performance mode and through keyframing, so I can do all the drawing on procreate and then I import it to Dreams. But I wish to learn how to do it frame by frame. So, I hope they add the lasso tool soon. 😊
I think the reason why it’s taking them so long to release the lasso tool even tho it’s already excist on ProCreate, is bc the new app is made on a completly new engine. The app oporates very different compared to many other animation apps for Ipads whitch means the team can’t just copy past the tools to the new app. ProCreate Dreams deffenetly has potential to be one of the best, but rn it has too many problems
the inability to change the number of frames per new drawing was the reason I went back to base Procreate for anims., the other problems i can kinda work around but this one is just too annoying to deal with .it is such a basic thing and yet its not there. WHO DRAWS 1 FRAME PER DRAWING ALL THE TIME
The dev team has supported base procreate with heeeaps of free updates so I have faith dreams will improve. The way it is now I still prefer to animate in base procreate though.
I weirdly like the flaws, because it’s really forcing me to animate in a more traditional manner. When they get around to fixing this stuff I’ll certainly appreciate it, but in the meantime it makes for really good practice.
Kinda feels like the app is too demanding of the iPad. Like with the undo thing, maybe it combines strokes into “one stroke” to optimize the performance? Incredible how many things are missing or not functioning correct! It definitely feels like it’s in beta now. Hope they make it as amazing as they want it to be.
I thought the pixelation problem was with the brush omg... and I hope they fix it (procreate too) so that when you readjust something it doesn't get pixelated
I was really pissed at first when I got the app, and now I just animate frame by frame on procreate then import to dreams for editing and complex stuff.
I clicked on this for the thumbnail alone. I'm and old, old, crochet woman because I still use CS3. It's one of the last ones before they became subscription assholes, a relic from the bygone days when we actually own the shit we paid for. *lays facedown on the floor* Who the fuck doesn't give you a lasso tool?
