Stage

The Stage area is in the top half of your screen when you first open a movie. This is where you playback your work as you edit and create in the Timeline. It is also the canvas where you sketch, draw, and paint while in Draw & Paint mode.

The Stage has three main parts:

1. Stage

2. Backstage

3. Timecode

The Stage displays your content while you’re working and during playback. Stage size is set when you create your movie and can be adjusted later in movie settings .

The Backstage is the area that sits outside of the Stage.

Backstage allows you to create content larger than the Stage, and animate content on and off the Stage as desired. This includes any backgrounds and foreground elements, objects, and characters not always required on Stage.

Backstage content usually appears at reduced opacity. In Draw & Paint mode, content appears at full opacity and the Backstage will appear with the same solid background color as your Stage.

The timecode displays the time and frame number for the Playhead's location on your Timeline broken down into hours:minutes:seconds:frame number. Tap the timecode to access the Stage options .

By default, the undo/redo buttons are hidden. They can be toggled on movie settings → preferences .

Draw & Paint

When in Draw & Paint mode, the Stage becomes a canvas where you can sketch, draw, and paint. A top bar and sidebar will appear with many of the tools also found in Procreate.

Sketch, ink, and paint with hundreds of beautiful and versatile brushes. Access hundreds of Procreate brushes and add your favorite custom ones to your Brush Library.

Blend and mix colors using any brush in your library to achieve a range of effects.

Erase mistakes and make fine adjustments with any brush in your Brush Library.

Paint overlapping objects without altering or painting over work you've already done. Layers let you edit and delete individual elements in your artwork.

Select, adjust, and harmonize color as you create. Use various interface options to suit your workflow or drag and drop color into your art using ColorDrop.

1. Drag this slider up to increase the size of your brush or make it smaller by dragging down.

2. Tap anywhere along the slider to jump to that point for bigger adjustments.

3. Make finer adjustments by holding the slider and dragging your finger sideways. Without lifting your finger, drag up or down. The slider will now move in smaller increments.

1. To increase or decrease brush opacity from transparent to solid, drag the bottom slider up or down.

2. Change opacity more accurately by holding the slider and dragging your finger sideways. Without lifting your finger, drag up or down. The slider will now move in smaller increments.

Without the Timeline, the Stage becomes a full-screen canvas with more room to focus on sketching, drawing, and painting. Drag the handle icon in the center of the Timeline up or down to hide the Timeline and activate Flipbook .

Tap Done to exit Draw & Paint mode.

Stage options

Access Stage options by tapping the timecode in the bottom left corner of the Stage. Use these options to hide, show and edit onion skins, and change the background color.

1. Tap Show onion skin to reveal the backward and forward frames on the Stage.

2. Tap Hide onion skin to turn them off again.

1. Select Backwards or Forwards to choose which onion skin direction you wish to edit.

2. Select the color of your onion skin from the color swatches.

3. Use the Frames slider to select the number of onion skins you would like to see in this direction. Select from 1–8 onion skins.

4. Use the Opacity slider to select the opacity you would like to apply to your onion skins.

1. Tap Background color to open a color disc.

2. Use the reticle to select a new background color. Use the outer ring to select a hue, and the inner circle to select the shade. Tap the Transparent toggle to make the entire Stage and Backstage color transparent. This is useful for working with export formats that support transparency, such as .png sequences.