[Mike Stumbo]

Hi fellow animators, Mike Stumbo here.

I don’t use social media, as a means to communicate with peers, because I’ve found in the past that trolls 🧌 really do in fact exist! And by trolls, I mean those that like to jump onto peoples posts and speak their opinions as if they’re professionals, while in reality they’re just a scummy troll randomly visiting a post they’ve seen from one of their friends or followers and decided to jump in and give their inexperienced, uneducated opinions! Okay so enough of that. Sorry about my ranting and raving, but man…SM can suck. Anyways, onto the intended purpose of this topics thread.

Recently, this past week or so, Savage(creators of Procreate) gave a presentation in the UK at Playgrounds in Motion. It was on their technically second app they’ve ever made, that they apparently spent the last 5 years working on. It’s called Procreate Dreams. It’s an upcoming, all-in-one, traditional animation (2D cel drawing) app, that will only cost a onetime payment of just $20 USD. And, just like its parent app(Procreate), is an iPadOS exclusive(I have my reasons, theories and/or assumptions as to why that is, but that’s not the point of this thread either). Point is—

If you’ve seen the app, what are your thoughts and final takeaways on it? If you haven’t seen it, I’ll leave the url at the end of this threat and put it in the Topic Tags as well. Do you think Apple iPads are an adequate screen size for drawing, or do you prefer a larger canvas? Traditional animation paper, as made and sold by Lightfoot Ltd., came in only 3 sizes. The common, yet rarely used is 10f which is 8 1/2 by 11 inches, then there’s 12f which has always been the standard, at least by the great Ub, Walt and the other Nine Old Men. That size is 10 1/2 by 13 inches. And the rarest is 16f which is 13 1/2 by 17 inches, which sadly they no longer produce Blank Acetate Cels that big anymore, at least not by Lightfoot that is. So technically 10f would be the only size you could use on the app, without having to pinch to zoom, which can cause it’s own headaches and problems when doing.

So yeah, that’s all I have left to post. Please feel free to respond, I’ll have the thread set to monitor and am curious to all of your thoughts and takeaways! Thanks 🙏 for the read and happy animating. As always…

~ Respectfully,

Mike Stumbo

Animation Generalist

 

Ps. Here’s the link as promised: https://procreate.com/dreams

[Niels]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for bringing this up. I saw the presentation. It’s of course hard to tell exactly how well it works without having tried it – but it looks great.

In my opinion it was a very sales’y presentation – I mean, rosy language (but that’s what the presentation was for, so understandable ;)). Much of what was said, I felt, could apply to Animation Paper too – so it will be interesting to check it out. Procreate is obviously good and popular, so it will be interesting to see how Dreams does. A scary competitor for me of course. 😉 But that’s how it is – healthy competition.

The price tag is amazing. I think $20 is super affordable. They must me planning on selling large quantities. He did mention quite a few times, that this-and-that was only the beginning and more would come, which tells me that the various features might be somewhat limited – on the other hand, they have had 5 years to develop it all. Even though 5 years can go by quickly – when developing animation software, I can tell you! Hehe 😀

About your size discussion, I am not sure. Once it is all digital, I feel it is super individual what people prefer. People have different habits (zooming/not zooming/drawing from wrist or arm/etc etc).

Looking forward to read what others have to say on this… 🙂 Please participate folks! 🙂

Best,
Niels

[Bahadir Tosun]

I’m so tired of jumping from one app to another. We forget the most important one and that is how to draw. Animation paper will be the last app for me (I hope) and I hope new updates will fulfill my expectations.

[Mike Stumbo]

Hey Niels,

Good to hear from you and it’s been awhile right? Yeah I have used Procreate when I had an iPad, and really do love Apple’s Pencil, especially the 2nd Gen! My kids have iPads and so my oldest uses it, so that’s cool, no money wasted. I have my problems with Savage and its CEO and Co-founder, James Cuda. But I’ll remain professional and not use this thread to vent any more than I already have. 😂

The app did look really impressive, but tablets are just not gonna cut-it in full production studios. I mean sure, I see them used for Pre-vis., for storyboarding and note taking, but to actually sit down and crank out hundreds of frames a day for weeks on end— never gonna happen! It’s simply a shtick for indies and tubers. Not my thing, but I’ll be getting it for my kid, cause she likes to try and animate like her daddy. ☺️

Well Niels, it’s nice hearing from you and hope development is running smoothly for you! Hope to talk soon. Cheers!

~ Respectfully,

Mike Stumbo

Animation Generalist

[Niels]

Thanks a lot Mike – I couldn’t agree more.

We have had some pumps on the road the last year – so things have been somewhat slow. Should be very close to the last Alpha release (Alpha 8) now though – and from then on to the beta fase and finally the actual 5.0 release! So excited about getting there…