In Procreate, a "folder" is called a brush set. Open the Brush Library, tap the plus button in the set list, choose Create new set, name it, then press and hold a brush, drag it slightly, and drop it into the open set. Moving a brush relocates it, so duplicate it first (swipe left, tap Duplicate) if you want a copy to stay in the original set.

The rest of this guide covers batch moves, imported brushes, naming conventions, and the limits that trip people up. It is written for motion designers and compositors who use Procreate for hand-drawn textures, storyboards, and frame work before bringing assets into After Effects, Nuke, or Blender.

What Procreate Calls a Folder

Procreate uses three levels of organization, and mixing up the terms is the main reason people can't find the right control:

• Brush library: the top-level container (added in Procreate 5.4). You can have several.
• Brush set: what most people call a folder. It sits in the left-hand list of the library and holds individual brushes.
• Brush: the individual tool, listed on the right with a stroke preview.

So "add brushes to a new folder" means two actions: create a new brush set, then move or import brushes into it. You can't nest sets inside other sets, so plan a flat structure.

Step 1: Create a New Brush Set

1. Open your brush library by tapping the brush icon in the top right of the canvas.
2. In the set list on the left, find the plus button. Tap it and choose Create new set. The new set appears above your current sets in that library.
3. Name it. Press and hold the set title (or tap the small brush-stroke symbol to the left of a custom set's name) to rename it later.

On older versions of Procreate, the control is a "New Set" field you reveal by pulling down on the set list. If you're on a current version and don't see it, check the plus button in the library panel first.

Default sets that ship with Procreate can't be renamed or deleted, and neither can the brushes inside them. Your own sets are fully editable. This is why it's worth building a custom set for working brushes rather than trying to reorganize the defaults.

Custom icons and emoji

Press and hold a set title and you can rename it or assign a custom icon. A quick shortcut is to put an emoji at the start of the set name and then deselect the custom icon, so the emoji becomes the set's icon. With many sets, an emoji prefix is a faster visual scan than reading names.

Step 2: Move Brushes Into the New Set

Moving is a drag-and-drop gesture that needs two hands, and it's where most frustration happens.

Moving a single brush

1. Open the set that currently holds the brush.
2. Press and hold the brush thumbnail until it lifts, then move it slightly away from its position.
3. Keep holding it. With your other hand, scroll the set list on the left and tap your new set to open it.
4. Drop the brush into the open set's brush list on the right.

Drop it into the open list rather than onto the set's title. Dropping onto a title is fiddly, and it's easy to land the brush in the wrong set.

Moving multiple brushes at once

1. Tap the first brush so it turns blue.
2. Swipe other brushes to the right to add them to the selection. They highlight in a slightly different shade of blue.
3. Press and hold one of the selected brushes, lift the group, and bring it together.
4. Open the target set with your free hand and drop the group into it.

You can also pick up an entire set and reposition it in the set list, which is useful for putting your most-used sets at the top.

Move vs. Copy: Duplicate First

Moving a brush into another set relocates it. The original is gone from the source set. If you want a brush to live in two places, such as a favorites set and its original category, duplicate it first:

1. Swipe the brush title to the left.
2. Tap Duplicate. A copy appears with a numbered name, such as "Brush Name 1".
3. Move the duplicate into your new set.

This is the cleanest way to build a "Favorites" or "Current Project" set without breaking your existing categories. Duplicates also make a safe base for experimenting in Brush Studio, since the original stays untouched.

Importing Brushes Directly Into a New Set

Downloaded brush packs follow different rules from brushes you create yourself. Procreate accepts .brush, .brushset, and .brushlibrary files, plus Photoshop .abr brushes.

• A single .brush file lands in a set called Imported at the top of your current library.
• A .brushset file appears as its own set at the top of your current library.
• A .brushlibrary file appears at the top of the library overview.

You can import by tapping the plus button in the brush panel and choosing Import from Files, by tapping the file in Files, Mail, or a browser, or by dragging the file into Procreate.

The practical workflow for a new folder is: import the brush, let it land in Imported, create your new set, then move the brush across. The next outside brush you import creates a fresh Imported set at the bottom of the list, so you can clear it out each time.

Organizing From the Files App

Brush libraries are stored as plain folders in the Files app, under On My iPad → Procreate → Brushes or iCloud Drive → Procreate Brushes. The structure mirrors the app:

• Folders in the main directory are libraries.
• Folders inside those are brush sets.
• Files inside the sets are individual brushes.

You can copy, move, and duplicate these in Files, and changes show up in Procreate. This is handy for bulk reorganizing or backing up a studio's brush kit. The caution is that deleting or renaming things in Files affects your Procreate library directly, so back up before restructuring.

Common Problems and Fixes

The brush dropped into the wrong set. You probably dropped on a title. Reopen the correct set and drag it again, dropping into the open list.

Only two brushes will group together. Make sure you're selecting by swiping right on each brush, not tapping, once the first brush is held or selected.

I can't create a set on my iPhone. Procreate Pocket supports creating a set by opening the Brushes Library and tapping New Set. An earlier forum reply said this wasn't available in Pocket at the time, so it may depend on your version.

I can't put a set inside another set. Nesting isn't supported. Use libraries as your top-level grouping and sets within them.

I can't find a brush. Swipe down in the brush library to reveal the search bar.

The default brush won't rename. Default brushes and sets are locked.

A Naming System That Scales

If you share a brush kit across a team, or you move between Procreate and other tools often, naming matters more than icons. A simple scheme:

• Library per discipline: Texture, Storyboard, Matte, Lettering.
• Sets by tool behavior: Dry Media, Ink, Grain, Smears.
• A "Current Project" set that you rebuild per job using duplicates, then archive when the job wraps.
• Prefixes for sort order: Procreate doesn't auto-sort sets alphabetically, so numbers or emoji at the front control the order you see them in.

Because Procreate has no automatic alphabetical sorting, manual ordering and prefixes are the main way to keep a long list manageable.

Where Procreate Brush Work Fits in a Motion Pipeline

Many motion and VFX artists use Procreate for the parts of a job where a pencil-like feel matters: hand-painted textures, boards, rough animation frames, matte painting elements, and style frames. A well-organized brush library speeds that up. The output is still flat or layered stills that need to go somewhere.

That's where Styleframe can sit downstream of your Procreate work, with your drawings serving as source material. Your compositing pipeline stays as it is. Procreate remains where the artwork is made.

To make this handoff smooth, keep a dedicated "Styleframe Refs" or "Keyframes" library in Procreate with brushes tuned for the look you want to preserve. Consistent brushwork across your keyframes gives a reference-driven tool more consistent source material.

Quick Reference

1. Tap the brush icon to open the Brush Library.
2. Tap the plus button in the set list and choose Create new set.
3. Name the set; add an emoji prefix if you want an icon.
4. Swipe left on a brush and tap Duplicate if you want to keep the original in place.
5. Press and hold the brush, lift it, open your new set with the other hand, and drop it into the open list.
6. For batches, swipe right to select multiple brushes before lifting.
7. For imported packs, move brushes out of the Imported set into your own sets.

Once the habit is in place, building a new project-specific set takes very little time, and a clean brush library cuts the scrolling between sketching, texturing, and exporting frames for the comp.

In Procreate, a "folder" is called a brush set. Open the Brush Library, tap the plus button in the set list, choose Create new set, name it, then press and hold a brush, drag it slightly, and drop it into the open set. Moving a brush relocates it, so duplicate it first (swipe left, tap Duplicate) if you want a copy to stay in the original set.

The rest of this guide covers batch moves, imported brushes, naming conventions, and the limits that trip people up. It is written for motion designers and compositors who use Procreate for hand-drawn textures, storyboards, and frame work before bringing assets into After Effects, Nuke, or Blender.

What Procreate Calls a Folder

Procreate uses three levels of organization, and mixing up the terms is the main reason people can't find the right control:

• Brush library: the top-level container (added in Procreate 5.4). You can have several.
• Brush set: what most people call a folder. It sits in the left-hand list of the library and holds individual brushes.
• Brush: the individual tool, listed on the right with a stroke preview.

So "add brushes to a new folder" means two actions: create a new brush set, then move or import brushes into it. You can't nest sets inside other sets, so plan a flat structure.

Step 1: Create a New Brush Set

1. Open your brush library by tapping the brush icon in the top right of the canvas.
2. In the set list on the left, find the plus button. Tap it and choose Create new set. The new set appears above your current sets in that library.
3. Name it. Press and hold the set title (or tap the small brush-stroke symbol to the left of a custom set's name) to rename it later.

On older versions of Procreate, the control is a "New Set" field you reveal by pulling down on the set list. If you're on a current version and don't see it, check the plus button in the library panel first.

Default sets that ship with Procreate can't be renamed or deleted, and neither can the brushes inside them. Your own sets are fully editable. This is why it's worth building a custom set for working brushes rather than trying to reorganize the defaults.

Custom icons and emoji

Press and hold a set title and you can rename it or assign a custom icon. A quick shortcut is to put an emoji at the start of the set name and then deselect the custom icon, so the emoji becomes the set's icon. With many sets, an emoji prefix is a faster visual scan than reading names.

Step 2: Move Brushes Into the New Set

Moving is a drag-and-drop gesture that needs two hands, and it's where most frustration happens.

Moving a single brush

1. Open the set that currently holds the brush.
2. Press and hold the brush thumbnail until it lifts, then move it slightly away from its position.
3. Keep holding it. With your other hand, scroll the set list on the left and tap your new set to open it.
4. Drop the brush into the open set's brush list on the right.

Drop it into the open list rather than onto the set's title. Dropping onto a title is fiddly, and it's easy to land the brush in the wrong set.

Moving multiple brushes at once

1. Tap the first brush so it turns blue.
2. Swipe other brushes to the right to add them to the selection. They highlight in a slightly different shade of blue.
3. Press and hold one of the selected brushes, lift the group, and bring it together.
4. Open the target set with your free hand and drop the group into it.

You can also pick up an entire set and reposition it in the set list, which is useful for putting your most-used sets at the top.

Move vs. Copy: Duplicate First

Moving a brush into another set relocates it. The original is gone from the source set. If you want a brush to live in two places, such as a favorites set and its original category, duplicate it first:

1. Swipe the brush title to the left.
2. Tap Duplicate. A copy appears with a numbered name, such as "Brush Name 1".
3. Move the duplicate into your new set.

This is the cleanest way to build a "Favorites" or "Current Project" set without breaking your existing categories. Duplicates also make a safe base for experimenting in Brush Studio, since the original stays untouched.

Importing Brushes Directly Into a New Set

Downloaded brush packs follow different rules from brushes you create yourself. Procreate accepts .brush, .brushset, and .brushlibrary files, plus Photoshop .abr brushes.

• A single .brush file lands in a set called Imported at the top of your current library.
• A .brushset file appears as its own set at the top of your current library.
• A .brushlibrary file appears at the top of the library overview.

You can import by tapping the plus button in the brush panel and choosing Import from Files, by tapping the file in Files, Mail, or a browser, or by dragging the file into Procreate.

The practical workflow for a new folder is: import the brush, let it land in Imported, create your new set, then move the brush across. The next outside brush you import creates a fresh Imported set at the bottom of the list, so you can clear it out each time.

Organizing From the Files App

Brush libraries are stored as plain folders in the Files app, under On My iPad → Procreate → Brushes or iCloud Drive → Procreate Brushes. The structure mirrors the app:

• Folders in the main directory are libraries.
• Folders inside those are brush sets.
• Files inside the sets are individual brushes.

You can copy, move, and duplicate these in Files, and changes show up in Procreate. This is handy for bulk reorganizing or backing up a studio's brush kit. The caution is that deleting or renaming things in Files affects your Procreate library directly, so back up before restructuring.

Common Problems and Fixes

The brush dropped into the wrong set. You probably dropped on a title. Reopen the correct set and drag it again, dropping into the open list.

Only two brushes will group together. Make sure you're selecting by swiping right on each brush, not tapping, once the first brush is held or selected.

I can't create a set on my iPhone. Procreate Pocket supports creating a set by opening the Brushes Library and tapping New Set. An earlier forum reply said this wasn't available in Pocket at the time, so it may depend on your version.

I can't put a set inside another set. Nesting isn't supported. Use libraries as your top-level grouping and sets within them.

I can't find a brush. Swipe down in the brush library to reveal the search bar.

The default brush won't rename. Default brushes and sets are locked.

A Naming System That Scales

If you share a brush kit across a team, or you move between Procreate and other tools often, naming matters more than icons. A simple scheme:

• Library per discipline: Texture, Storyboard, Matte, Lettering.
• Sets by tool behavior: Dry Media, Ink, Grain, Smears.
• A "Current Project" set that you rebuild per job using duplicates, then archive when the job wraps.
• Prefixes for sort order: Procreate doesn't auto-sort sets alphabetically, so numbers or emoji at the front control the order you see them in.

Because Procreate has no automatic alphabetical sorting, manual ordering and prefixes are the main way to keep a long list manageable.

Where Procreate Brush Work Fits in a Motion Pipeline

Many motion and VFX artists use Procreate for the parts of a job where a pencil-like feel matters: hand-painted textures, boards, rough animation frames, matte painting elements, and style frames. A well-organized brush library speeds that up. The output is still flat or layered stills that need to go somewhere.

That's where Styleframe can sit downstream of your Procreate work, with your drawings serving as source material. Your compositing pipeline stays as it is. Procreate remains where the artwork is made.

To make this handoff smooth, keep a dedicated "Styleframe Refs" or "Keyframes" library in Procreate with brushes tuned for the look you want to preserve. Consistent brushwork across your keyframes gives a reference-driven tool more consistent source material.

Quick Reference

1. Tap the brush icon to open the Brush Library.
2. Tap the plus button in the set list and choose Create new set.
3. Name the set; add an emoji prefix if you want an icon.
4. Swipe left on a brush and tap Duplicate if you want to keep the original in place.
5. Press and hold the brush, lift it, open your new set with the other hand, and drop it into the open list.
6. For batches, swipe right to select multiple brushes before lifting.
7. For imported packs, move brushes out of the Imported set into your own sets.

Once the habit is in place, building a new project-specific set takes very little time, and a clean brush library cuts the scrolling between sketching, texturing, and exporting frames for the comp.