Intro to Procreate Video

https://youtu.be/PhOpYDGd1mQ

00:00:00 - Intro

In this part of the video, I explain what this video is going to be about - namely the gallery, interface, and the gestures that come automatically when you download the Procreate app.

I also explain that I'm starting this new series where I will do much shorter and much more direct videos designed for beginners in the Procreate world. As you may now, I already have long-form videos about most topics when it comes to Procreate (for those of you with long attention spans).

Those previous videos that are most relevant to this video are:

Intro Video - Procreate for Beginners | Basics of Procreate

Procreate for Beginners - Gestures

Procreate for Beginners - Gallery

00:06:27 - Procreate App Overview

The screen that comes up when you first open the Procreate app is the Gallery which will show you some sample artworks the first time you open the app. When you tap on one of the artworks, it will take you into the Interface where you can draw, erase, or otherwise manipulate the artwork you've selected.

00:07:01 - Interface Buttons and Features

On the interface, in the top-right corner, you'll find the following buttons (going from left to right)

Paint brush Tool (paint brush button) - This is the tool you use to draw with. It is automatically selected (highlighted in blue) when you open the interface. Tapping on the paintbrush again once it is selected will bring up the Brush Library where you can choose a brush to use. The Procreate app comes with 18 categories of brushes with over 200 brushes in total for you to use.

Smudge Tool (finger button) - This is the tool you use to smudge (or smear) the paint that is already on your canvas. To select the smudge tool, you tap it once (it should now be highlighted) and if you want to choose a specific brush from the brush library, you would need to tap it again to select the brush you want to use.

Eraser Tool (eraser button) - This is the tool you use to erase paint off of the canvas (more specifically off of the layer that you have selected - we'll talk about layers next)

Layers Menu (two overlapping squares button) - Tapping this button will take you to the Layers Menu where you can select the layer you want to work on -- or create a new -- layer. Using layers helps you separate certain parts of your artwork so you can independently manipulate them and helps you make non-destructive changes to your art piece.

Color Panel (circle button with your currently selected color) - Tapping this button will open the Color Panel where you can choose a color to paint with. Along the bottom of this panel are 5 options for methods of choosing your color: disc, classic, harmony, values, and palettes. There is also a history bar (on some iPads) that shows you the previous colors you have selected and used on your canvas. And along the bottom is the palette you currently have selected where you can store the colors you're using in your art piece.

• The disc option will allow you to choose the hue of your color with the outer ring (red, blue, yellow, etc.) while the inner circle will allow you to adjust the saturation and brightness.
• The classic option will allow you to choose the hue with the first slider that is located underneath the square. The second slider allows you to adjust the saturation of your color. And the third allows you to adjust the brightness of your color.
• The harmony option will allow you to find harmonized colors that go nicely together. Tapping on the top left corner of the panel will allow you to choose between the five options: complementary, split complementary, analogous, triadic, and tetradic.
• The values option will allow you to adjust your color based on sliders or by entering in the specific hexadecimal code for a certain color. You again have the option of changing the hue, saturation, and brightness; but you also can adjust the amount of red, green, and blue (in an RGB canvas) or the amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (in a CMYK canvas).
• The palettes tab allows you to choose a palette of colors to use or to create a new one. To add a color to a palette, just click an empty square on the palette. To select a new palette, just select one of the squares filled with color on the palette you wish to use. Once a palette is selected, it will show up at the bottom of all the other tabs.

Over on the top-left corner of the interface (starting from left to right):

Gallery - Tapping on this will take you back to the Gallery screen. Once you do this, it effectively saves your work and all changes become permanent to your art (you won't be able to undo/redo, etc.)

Actions Menu (the wrench button) - This is where you can change all of your settings for the app.

Adjustments Menu (the magic wand button) - These options will allow you to make further changes to your artwork. You can do things like blurring or changing the overall hue, saturation, and brightness of your piece as a whole, and more.

Selections Tool (the "s" button) - This tool allows you select parts of your currently selected layer and make changes to only that portion of the layer.

Transformation Tool (the arrow button) - This tool allows you to transform (move, stretch, warp, etc) a selected portion of your artwork.

On the left-hand side of the interface (or on the right-hand side if you've changed it in the actions menu), you'll see a panel with two vertical sliders on it. The top slider will allow you to adjust the brush size and the bottom slider will allow you to adjust the brush opacity. In the middle of those two sliders is a little hollow square button. That button is automatically assigned to be the eyedropper tool which allows you to re-select a color on your artwork when you move the crosshairs of the eyedropper over that color on your artwork. At the bottom of this panel are the undo and redo buttons.

00:21:31 - Gallery Buttons and Features

Back in the gallery, in the top-left corner, there is a button you can tap with the word "Procreate" on it. This is the main info screen for Procreate. It'll tell you the exact version you're using and other technical information about the app. There are also two more buttons you can press. On the left is "Restore Example Artworks" which you can use to restore those example artworks if you want to see them again after you delete them. On the right is "Start Gallery Recovery" which sometimes allows you to recover an artwork that got lost during an app shutdown or other weird glitch in the system. However, this does not recover any artworks you have deleted.

In the top-right corner, the first button reading left-to-right is "Select". This allows you to select one or more artworks by tapping on them. This opens a new menu in the top-right that has the following options: Stack, Preview, Share, Duplicate, and Delete. If you've only selected one artwork, you won't be able to use the "Stack" option. Stack allows you to stack several artworks together for better organization. However, at this time, you cannot have a stack within a stack. Tapping on the name of a stack or the name of an individual artwork allows you to rename it. Preview allows you to preview an artwork without opening it fully in the interface. Share allows you to export your artwork. Duplicate allows you to make a copy of artwork. Delete will delete your artwork permanently. There is a confirmation window that comes up when you use the delete feature because as I stated before, this will delete that artwork forever. You cannot restore it.

Back in the original menu, there is also the option to Import. When you click on this, it will take you to your Files app on your iPad where you can import a file from there into Procreate. The next option, Photo, opens up the Photos app on your iPad where you c can import a photo into Procreate.

00:26:23 - Gallery Gestures

To move an artwork out of a stack, tap and hold the artwork and use another finger (or your pencil) to hit the back button out of the stack and back into the gallery. Then, release your artwork into the gallery.

To move multiple artworks at once, you can tap and hold one artwork, and then tap other artworks with another finger (or your pencil) to add it to the collection you have with the finger you were holding the original artwork down with. Then, move those artworks to wherever you want them and release.

To create a stack from two artworks, you can tap and hold one artwork and drag it on top of another artwork and let go. This will combine those two artworks into a stack.

If you want to add another artwork to a stack, tap and hold the artwork drag it on top of the stack, wait for the stack to open, and then release the artwork into the stack.

To rearrange an artwork's position in a stack or within the gallery, tap and hold the artwork and drag it to the position you want it to be in and release. Make sure it is being released into an empty space and not on top of another artwork.

You can change the orientation of an artwork in the gallery by pinching and rotating that artwork's thumbnail.

If you only want to select one artwork to share, duplicate, or delete, a quicker way of doing it is to swipe left on the artwork. This will bring up the options to share, duplicate, or delete right on top of that artwork (rather than going to select, tapping the artwork, and tapping share, duplicate, or delete at the top-right)

An eaiser way to preview an artwork is to expand (or reverse pinch) an artwork to open up that preview screen. From there you can pinch the artwork to go back to the gallery, OR you can tap on the artwork once to reveal arrows on the left and right. Those arrows allow you to quickly toggle between the artworks you have in preview mode. If you want to open one of those artworks in the interface, you can double tap on it.

00:29:40 - Interface Gestures

Tap with two fingers on the screen to undo an action. Tap with three fingers to redo an action.

Hold down two fingers to undo several actions in a row, rapidly (also known as "rapid undo"). You can also do a rapid redo using three fingers in a similar way.

You can pinch and rotate your canvas using two fingers and a pinching and twisting motion. You can also zoom in on your canvas by expanding two fingers out.

If you can master the "quick pinch" motion where you pinch your two fingers together and then quickly remove them from the screen, you can snap the artwork to fit the screen of your ipad. Good Luck :P

To clear an entire layer quickly, you can take three fingers and swipe them back and forth (or make a "scrubbing" motion).

You can take three fingers and swipe down on the screen to bring up the copy/paste menu.

To remove the distracting buttons on the interface when you are working, you can tap with four fingers. To return to the full interface you can either tap with four fingers again, or tap the little indicator in the top-left corner of the screen.

To use the quick shapes/quick lines feature on Procreate, hold your pencil at the end of your line or shape. The software will snap to the closest resembled shape from what you've drawn. You can then adjust that line or shape using the nodes on the shape OR you can tap the information bar that comes up near the top of the screen and change the shape there.

If you're having issues with getting your brush size (or brush opacity) slider at the correct position because the percentage numbers are moving too fast when you slide up or down, you can slide your pencil to the right (or left) while sliding up and down to slow that slider down so you can easily choose the correct percentage.

You can change any of these gesture controls by going into the Actions Menu (the wrench button in the top-left) and selecting the "Prefs" sub-category at the top. Then find and tap on the "Gesture Controls" option in the menu. Then, find the action/gesture you want to change and change it to something else (or turn it off completely). Just know that if you change an action to a new gesture, the old action that used that gesture will get deleted. You can also add additional gestures from this menu if you wish.

00:40:40 - Creating a New Canvas

In the Gallery screen, in the top-right corner, there is a plus sign. Any time you see a plus sign in Procreate that means "add a new ________". Once you tap that plus sign, it will bring up the "New Canvas" menu. Here you can either choose a template from the list and open it in the interface OR you can tap the second plus sign button located just under the first where you can create a custom canvas for yourself. I'm going to be explaining this thoroughly in another video, but you can change the dimensions of your canvas by selecting the units (mm, cm, in, or px) and typing in the number. Then, just hit create and you have a custom-size blank canvas.