Developed by Savage Interactive in collaboration with award-winning artist, Zane Bell, Procreate Pocket is a high-quality, fully-featured digital paint program that allows you to create professional-looking paintings right on your Pocket. You can work on projects in just minutes, and see them instantly on your computer screen. With intuitive controls, you can move the camera around the screen to access various tools, or stretch to zoom in on details. Procreate’s user interface is simple and easy to use, with options for everything from brush hardness to transparency. When you’re done, simply save the painting to your computer and print it out!
Procreate Pocket has several unique features that set it apart from other digital painting programs. First, it allows you to preview your painted artwork in portrait mode, giving you an “almost finished” look. By selecting an object in the scene, you can move the mouse cursor around to adjust the focus, size, color, and blend of the painting. You can also drag objects to change their position, or stretch and pull the canvas to resize it. If you need to make changes to colors, simply highlight or edit the color you want, and it will be applied immediately for one easy, pre-planned step.
Procreate’s interface and tools are designed for artists at heart. You can quickly move between painting modes, add textures and effects, and apply multiple layers of colors and techniques right on your pocket device. Even though the interface and user experience is quite intuitive, the biggest drawback is the limitations of touch screens. You cannot touch anything except for the borders of the canvas, and the selection of brushes and tools is limited to a few items on the main toolbar. Other apps allow you to tap items, move them around, zoom in and out, open them in other apps, and more. You can only pinch in or out to zoom in or out, and it’s easy to get your fingers tangled up in small controls.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of the Procreate is that it lacks the iPhone Connect feature that many professional artists have come to expect from high end, studio-grade software. Procreate uses its own version of the iSight plugin, which is not compatible with the iPhone’s camera interface. This means that if you are trying to capture a great photograph using your Procreate, it will not be ready to share on your iPhone, unless you purchase the $99 worth of Procreate ProHD+ kit (which includes a camera so you can capture photos on your phone). It is worth spending the extra money if you are serious about taking gorgeous photographs. The graphics are clear and vibrant, and the brushes, pencils, and paints are well designed and easy to use.
Apple is readying another new creation from their long term development team, the iPad app named iulia. We got some hands on time with the app and have found that it works quite well as a desktop application, but it also does quite well as a pocket PC. The one complaint we have seen regarding iulia as it appears in beta form is that there are not as many tools as other apps, and they do not currently have a full screen mode. This may be solved with an official release.
Overall, the Procreate pocket PC is quite usable for beginners, and it can save you quite a bit of money compared to buying professional photo materials, such as books or canvas. However, if you really want to create professional looking art, then you should seriously consider purchasing the iulia app, which is currently in beta. As Apple’s first tablet offering, it is well designed and has a polished user interface. It also packs in a ton of useful functionality, with plenty of wallpapers, templates, and brushes to choose from. If you need to get right to work, this is definitely a step above your average digital artist’s canvas.
