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Catalog / Procreate Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet

Procreate Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet

A comprehensive cheat sheet covering essential tools, techniques, and shortcuts for digital illustration and 3D design in Procreate.

Interface & Basic Gestures

Canvas Gestures

Pinch Two Fingers:

Zoom In/Out.

Pinch Two Fingers & Rotate:

Rotate Canvas.

Tap with One Finger:

Quick Menu.

Tap with Two Fingers:

Undo.

Tap with Three Fingers:

Redo.

Tap with Four Fingers:

Full Screen Mode.

Three-Finger Swipe Down:

Copy/Paste Menu.

Long Press Canvas:

QuickShape.

Basic Interface Elements

Top Toolbar: Contains tools like Brush, Smudge, Erase, Layers, Color Picker, and Adjustments.

Side Toolbar (Left): Contains Size and Opacity sliders for your selected tool.

Layers Panel: Manage and organize your artwork in stacked layers.

Color Panel: Select colors using various methods (Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value, Palettes).

Customizing the Interface

Interface Options:

Customize left or right hand interface, brush cursor, dynamics smoothing, and project canvas.

Gesture Control Panel:

Customize selection, quick menu, quick shape, eyedropper and assisted drawing options.

Brushes & Painting

Brush Basics

Brush Library:

Access a wide range of preset brushes organized into categories.

Brush Studio:

Customize existing brushes or create your own with advanced settings.

Size Slider:

Adjust the brush size.

Opacity Slider:

Control the brush opacity/transparency.

Advanced Brush Settings

Shape: Customize the brush stamp shape and its behavior.

Grain: Adjust the texture and surface of the brush.

Stroke: Control the spacing, jitter, and stabilization of the brush stroke.

Rendering: Adjust the blending modes, flow, and wet edges of the brush.

Taper: Modify the pressure and size taper of the brush.

Dynamics: Adjust the speed, tilt, and rotation effects on the brush.

Smudging & Erasing

Smudge Tool:

Blend colors together using a brush-like effect. Use same settings as painting brushes.

Erase Tool:

Erase pixels using different brush shapes and sizes. Use same settings as painting brushes.

Layers & Selections

Layer Management

New Layer:

Tap the + icon in the Layers panel to create a new layer.

Layer Visibility:

Tap the checkbox on a layer to toggle its visibility.

Layer Opacity:

Adjust the opacity of a layer using the slider.

Layer Blend Modes:

Change how a layer interacts with layers below it (e.g., Multiply, Screen, Overlay).

Clipping Masks:

Clip a layer to the shape of the layer below it.

Masks:

Non-destructively hide portions of a layer.

Merge Layers:

Pinch layers together to merge them into one.

Group Layers:

Swipe right on layers and tap ‘Group’ to organize layers into folders.

Selection Tools

Freehand Selection: Draw a custom selection area.

Rectangle Selection: Create a rectangular selection.

Ellipse Selection: Create an elliptical selection.

Automatic Selection: Select areas based on color similarities.

Add/Subtract Selections: Add or remove areas from an existing selection.

Feather Selection: Soften the edges of a selection.

Transformations

Uniform:

Scale the selected content proportionally.

Distort:

Distort the selected content by dragging corners.

Warp:

Warp the selected content using a mesh grid.

Rotate:

Rotate the selected content.

Flip Horizontal/Vertical:

Flip selected content.

3D Painting & Export

3D Model Import & Navigation

Import 3D Model:

Import .obj and .usdz files

One Finger Drag:

Rotates the view around the 3D model.

Two Finger Pinch:

Zooms in and out on the 3D Model.

3D Painting Techniques

Paint Directly on Model: Use brushes to apply color and textures directly to the 3D model surface.

Environment Lighting: Adjust ambient light and shadow settings to visualize textures.

Material Properties: Modify roughness, metalness, and opacity for realistic material effects.

Exporting 3D Models

Export Formats:

Export your painted 3D model as .usdz or .obj for use in other 3D applications.
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