# Getting Started with Procreate Dreams: Animation for Everyone - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/getting-started-with-procreate-dreams-animation-for-everyone/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Video & Animation · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # Getting Started with Procreate Dreams: Animation for Everyone By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Lisa Bardot · Happy Art-Making! All levels · 234 min A likeable, thorough beginner walkthrough of Procreate Dreams, but it teaches by repetition rather than by explaining the principles underneath. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fgetting-started-with-procreate-dreams-animation-for-everyone%2F1540591422) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A Guided Tour, Not a Theory Class Lisa Bardot's "Getting Started with Procreate Dreams" does exactly what its title promises: it gets a complete beginner from a blank theater screen to a handful of finished animations. The course opens with a straightforward interface tour, covering the stage, the surrounding "backstage" area, the toolbar, and the timeline, before moving into gestures like the two-finger tap to undo and three-finger pinch to zoom. From there it walks through the app's three animation methods in sequence: frame-by-frame drawing using the flip book and onion skins, keyframing for precise movement, and Performing, where you record motion live by physically dragging elements around with the Apple Pencil while the app captures the gesture as animation data. The bulk of the course is a string of small follow-along projects, each building on skills from the last. A balloon gets animated with Performing to establish squash, float, and rotation. A car gets keyframed down a road with looping wheels. Autumn leaves tumble and twirl using warp and rotate performs layered together. A cactus scene brings static Procreate artwork to life, and a palm tree project introduces animating over an imported video with frame-by-frame burst effects timed to footsteps. Audio gets folded in through a Pixabay sound effect, trimmed and keyframed to fade in and out. Each project reuses the same handful of moves (Perform a rotate, Perform a warp, add a keyframe, group it, apply a blend mode) in a new context, which is an effective way to cement muscle memory even if it means the middle stretch of lessons can feel repetitive. ## Where It Delivers and Where It Thins Out The course is strongest when it treats specific mechanical friction points as worth stopping for: dragging the flip book handle to enter full-screen frame-by-frame mode, using clipping masks to keep pupils inside eye shapes, or noting that content only fills forward from wherever the playhead sits. These are the kinds of details that save a beginner real frustration, and they suggest an instructor who has actually hit these snags herself. Where it thins out is anything resembling animation theory. Easing, timing curves, and why a motion feels good or stiff are mentioned only in passing, and viewers looking for a grounding in animation principles rather than app mechanics will need to look elsewhere. The closing demo lessons, which walk through a swimming fish scene and a few other finished pieces, are more show-and-tell than instruction, useful for inspiration but light on new technique. Structurally, the course is generous rather than tight. At nearly four hours across twenty lessons, it could have compressed some of the more repetitive character-animation segments, where the same eye-blink-and-pupil routine gets demonstrated across multiple similar shapes. That said, the resource pack, with ready-to-animate Dreams files, a Procreate file for import practice, and a video for the animate-over-footage project, means the projects are genuinely followable rather than aspirational. Anyone who works through them will finish with real animation files and a working sense of how the app's tools fit together, even if the finer craft of animation remains a subject for a later course. The standout The Performing feature lessons, where you physically move pupils, warp shapes, and rotate elements in real time with the Apple Pencil to get natural, springy motion without touching a single keyframe curve. ## What you will learn - · Navigating the Procreate Dreams interface, stage, backstage, toolbar, and timeline - · Using tracks, content, groups, and keyframes to build layered animations - · The three core animation methods: frame-by-frame drawing, keyframing, and real-time Performing - · Adding onion skins, clipping masks, blend modes, and anchor points to refine motion - · Importing audio and video and animating over them, including audio fades via keyframes - · Bringing existing Procreate artwork into Dreams and exporting finished animations Best for: iPad owners with some Procreate drawing experience who want a guided, project-based on-ramp into 2D animation without prior animation training. Skip it if: Anyone without an iPad and Apple Pencil, or animators wanting a deep technical dive into timing, easing curves, and animation theory rather than follow-along projects. Engaging Teacher Helpful Examples Organization of Lessons Clarity of Instruction [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fgetting-started-with-procreate-dreams-animation-for-everyone%2F1540591422)