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If you want to unleash your creative side, there are several iPad apps ready to assist. While the iPad initially functioned as a basic tool for streaming or web browsing, Apple has transformed iPads into robust devices for tasks such as digital art and video editing.
We’ve put together a collection of some standout iPad apps for creative endeavors, all accessible on the App Store.
Before diving into the list, note that while Adobe’s creative apps are often seen as leading options for iPad creativity, we’re excluding them due to their widespread recognition. Instead, the focus will be on some of the less ubiquitous apps.
Procreate
Procreate stands out as a highly favored drawing app for iPad, and for good reason. The app enables the creation of digital artworks, sketches, and drawings using a plethora of brush styles. It’s user-friendly, offering intuitive gesture controls and a streamlined interface.
The app supports high-resolution canvases, reaching up to 16K by 8K on supported iPad Pros. It also facilitates the creation of GIFs, storyboards, animatics, and basic animations. Furthermore, you can bring in image formats like JPG, PNG, and TIFF. Procreate is equipped with tools designed to enhance your creative workflow on the iPad, such as QuickShape, StreamLine, Drawing Assist, and ColorDrop.
Upon completing your work, you have the option to rewatch your creative steps with the app’s time-lapse “Replay” feature and share a condensed 30-second clip on social platforms.
Procreate can be yours for a one-time purchase of $12.99.
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LumaFusion
LumaFusion presents itself as a superb video editing tool if you’re looking to move beyond iMovie. It boasts a wealth of accessible features, making it suitable for budding videographers or independent filmmakers operating with limited resources.
LumaFusion lets you perform intricate layered edits with 4K ProRes and HDR content. Incorporate various effects, pick from a multitude of transitions, and record your own voice-overs. The app allows creating complex titles and importing fonts and visuals. What’s more, you can refine audio through Graphic EQ, Parametric EQ, voice isolation, and other tools.
The app lets you start projects in different aspect ratios, including 16:9 landscape, 9:16 portrait, square, widescreen film, anamorphic, and more.
LumaFusion can be acquired for a one-off fee of $29.99. There’s also the option to add extra capabilities, such as multicam editing and transferring your project to Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Canva
Canva’s platform is easy to navigate, allowing anyone to produce visual content, even without prior graphic design skills. Utilize it for crafting presentations, infographics, videos, websites, social media visuals, and more, leveraging over 250,000 templates.
Canva includes features for altering images, customizing designs with brand elements and images, incorporating sound, and trimming and accelerating footage.
The platform also provides a suite of AI-driven tools to simplify the design process. For example, you can broaden images using “Magic Expand” or generate visuals from descriptions using “Magic Media”.
Canva is available at no cost, with a premium subscription at $12.99 per month for unrestricted access to AI capabilities, exclusive templates, and more.
Affinity Designer 2
Affinity Designer 2 is a graphic design app that unifies vector drawing, pixel-based effects, and image editing in one place. It’s ideal for professional artists, web creators, game designers, and other creative professionals.
The app empowers you to produce illustrations, logos, branding elements, icons, UI/UX layouts, typography, posters, labels, flyers, stickers, concept art, and digital art, among others. It fully integrates with Apple Pencil, utilizing its precision, pressure sensitivity, and tilt recognition.
Affinity Designer 2 streamlines your process with gesture-based commands, and it offers keyboard shortcut customization. It also allows unique actions like making your own font and zooming up to 1,000,000% for detailed accuracy.
A one-time purchase of $18.49 grants you access to the app.
Concepts
Concepts serves as an excellent app for idea generation and design exploration. It supports sketching outlines, jotting notes and creating mind maps, and drafting designs and storyboards.
The app features Nudge, Slice, and Select tools that make altering any part of your drawing easy, eliminating the need to redraw. It also offers a variety of realistic pens, pencils, and brushes that react to pressure and tilt.
Concepts supplies dimension and scale instruments to calculate measurements accurately, and it includes a customizable tool wheel or bar for personal preferences.
The basic version of the app is free. Upgrading to Concepts Plus, for $4.99 monthly, unlocks more capabilities, such as creating custom brushes and accessing premium editing features.
Tayasui Sketches
Tayasui Sketches is a solid, easy-to-handle app for drawing and sketching. Among its features are a realistic watercolor brush, digital acrylic brushes, the capability to mix colors for the perfect hue, tools for adding gradient and depth, and more.
The app enables multitasking by letting you launch another app and move documents and layers between the two. A “Zen Mode” is also present, allowing distraction-free creation.
You can also import your own pictures to include them in your designs. Tayasui Sketches offers the ability to organize your projects in custom folders.
Tayasui Sketches has a free version with basic features. A monthly subscription of $2.99 provides access to unlimited layers, new brushes and markers, an expanded brush editor, drawing backups, and additional features.
Dudel Draw
Dudel Draw is distinct from the other apps we’re looking at: It aims to stimulate your imagination by presenting a new shape each day that you can use as a base for a sketch.
These daily shapes range from simple geometric forms to more intricate and abstract figures. Additionally, you have the option to look at the shape from various perspectives with the app’s “flip” and “rotate” functions to further inspire your work.
Dudel Draw can also be a social experience as you and your friends share your daily creations. Dudel Draw can assist you in improving your artistic abilities, push you to produce something new daily, and provide a means to express yourself.
Dudel Draw is free for everyone.
Sketchbook
