To cartoon a photo in Procreate, import the photo, lower its opacity, lock it, and trace simplified, slightly exaggerated line art on a new layer above it. Then add flat color on separate layers beneath the lines and finish with shading on clipped layers. The result depends on how you simplify and exaggerate the reference. The steps below take you from a blank canvas to a layered file you can use in a motion or compositing pipeline.

What You Need Before You Start

• Procreate on an iPad, ideally with an Apple Pencil
• A photo with clear lighting and a face or subject with some distinctive features
• A canvas large enough to zoom into without losing detail

Reference choice matters more than most tutorials admit. A photo with a distinctive profile, an interesting hairstyle, a strong pose, or an expressive face gives you more to push. Generic, evenly lit, average-looking faces are harder to stylize because there is less to exaggerate.

Step 1: Set Up the Canvas

Create a custom canvas from the plus icon in the Gallery. A common choice is 3000 × 3000 px for a square, or 3000 × 4000 px at 300 DPI for a portrait. Whatever you choose, keep it large enough to zoom in tightly on eyes, hands, and hair.

If the file will end up in After Effects or Premiere Pro, think about delivery now. Pick a canvas that matches or exceeds your composition's aspect ratio, because upscaling a small raster later softens your line work.

Step 2: Import and Prepare the Photo

1. Tap the wrench icon, open Add, and choose Insert a photo.
2. Scale and position it so the part you want to draw fills the canvas. You can cartoon a full figure or just a head and shoulders; the process is the same.
3. Tap the layer's N to open its settings and lower the opacity until the photo is a pale guide.
4. Swipe the layer left and lock it so you can't draw on it by accident.

Create a new layer above the photo for your outlines. Keep every stage of the drawing on its own layer from the start. It makes later changes much easier and gives you separated elements if you plan to animate.

Step 3: Simplify and Exaggerate Before You Ink

Tracing exactly what you see produces a traced photo, not a cartoon. The cartoon look comes from two decisions:

• Simplify. Remove detail that doesn't define the person. A complicated hair silhouette becomes a few confident shapes. Skin texture, pores, and minor wrinkles mostly go away.
• Exaggerate. Push the features that make the subject recognizable. If the nose is long, make it a bit longer. If the jaw is square, make it blockier. Change curves so they become longer, shorter, rounder, or flatter.

Try a rough sketch on a separate layer first. Break the head into basic sections (cranium, jaw, nose, ears, hair mass) and redraw each in a simpler, more stylized form. Draw a few variations. The first one is rarely the best.

Step 4: Draw the Line Art

On the layer above the photo:

• Choose an inking brush. The Studio Pen in the Inking set is a reliable, crisp choice, and any ink-marker style brush works for a graphic look.
• Raise the brush's Stabilization (in Brush Studio, under Stabilization) so your lines come out smoother.
• Use dark brown or another dark color instead of pure black if you want a softer look. You can also sample a darker tone from the photo for the hair or lips.

Work in short, deliberate strokes. Map out the main facial features first: eyes, brows, nose, mouth, cheek lines, and jaw. Then add hair and body. Use fewer lines than the photo suggests, and give hair and clothing their own layers so you can hide them while working on other areas.

Close your shapes. Gaps in the outline are the most common reason a fill leaks into the wrong area when you use ColorDrop in the next step.

Step 5: Add Flat Color

Create a new layer beneath the line art for each major color area: skin, hair, clothing, background. Then:

• Drag a color from the Color Disc into a closed shape to fill it (ColorDrop), or select an area with the Selection tool and fill it.
• Sample colors from the original photo by touching and holding with the Eyedropper. Raising the photo opacity temporarily helps.
• Push saturation slightly beyond the photo for a more illustrated feel.

If a fill leaks, adjust the ColorDrop Threshold while holding, or close the gap on the line layer and try again.

A useful production habit is to paint a single flat silhouette shape on its own layer, then use it as a base for Alpha Lock or Clipping Mask layers above it. Every shading pass then stays inside the shape without erasing.

Step 6: Shade and Highlight

Add new layers above each color layer and set them to Clipping Mask. Use these for:

• Shadows: Set the layer to Multiply and paint with a desaturated purple or warm brown.
• Highlights: Use a lighter tone in Normal, Add, or Overlay.
• Blush, rim light, and accents: Keep them on their own layers so you can adjust opacity independently.

Cartoon shading usually means hard-edged shapes with a limited number of steps: one shadow tone, one highlight tone, maybe an accent. Soft airbrushing pushes the image back toward realism. You can still use a soft brush sparingly for cheeks or a gentle gradient in the background.

Hide the photo layer periodically to check whether the drawing reads on its own.

Step 7: Refine and Check

Before exporting, run through these quick checks:

• Proportions: Use Transform or Liquify on a selection to nudge an eye, nose, or ear.
• Line weight: Vary thickness slightly, with heavier lines on the outer silhouette and lighter ones for interior detail.
• Edge cleanup: Use the Eraser on the line layer, or a clipped layer, rather than erasing color layers.
• Value check: Temporarily add a black-and-white adjustment layer to confirm the main shapes read clearly.

Three-finger scrub clears a layer if you want to restart a section, and a two-finger tap undoes your last stroke.

Step 8: Export for Your Pipeline

For still delivery, export a PNG with transparency (hide the background layer) or a flattened JPEG. For motion work, export a layered PSD from the Share menu. Both After Effects and Photoshop read the layers, so your outlines, color, shading, and background arrive separated.

To prep a PSD for After Effects:

• Name layers clearly before exporting (Procreate layer names carry over).
• Keep the background on its own layer, so you can swap it for a comp background.
• Split moving parts onto separate layers: eyes, eyelids, mouth, hair, arms. You'll need clean overlap areas if you rig the character, so paint slightly past visible edges where one element sits behind another.

Using the Cartoon in Motion Work

A single illustrated frame is a finished piece for social or print. For video, it is usually a starting point. A few practical routes:

• Cut-out animation in After Effects: Import the PSD as a composition, parent the layers, and animate with a puppet rig or a tool like Duik. This works well for simple talking-head or explainer-style characters.
• Procreate's Animation Assist: Good for short frame-by-frame loops, but you redraw each frame by hand.
• Style reference for an existing shot: Use your finished frame as the target look when you need live footage or a 3D render to match.

That third route is where hand-drawn work and AI tools can meet without replacing the artist's decisions.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Procreate is the right tool for designing the look: you decide the line weight, palette, shapes, and level of exaggeration. Hand-redrawing that look on every frame of a video is slow, though. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool that can help carry a look you've established across moving footage, using your Procreate cartoon as a style reference.

This is not a substitute for learning how to simplify and exaggerate a face. The Procreate design work is what gives the style reference its identity. The tool's job is to extend that decision across motion, so you spend your time directing the result instead of redrawing it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Tracing every detail. More lines make the result look like an outlined photo.
• Working on one layer. You lose the ability to adjust color, lines, or shading independently.
• Leaving gaps in outlines. Fills leak and cleanup takes longer than closing the line.
• Over-blending shading. Smooth gradients on every surface weaken the cartoon look.
• Using a tiny canvas. You can't zoom in for eyes and hands, and the file won't hold up in a video comp.

Quick Recap

1. Create a large canvas.
2. Insert the photo, lower its opacity, and lock it.
3. Simplify and exaggerate the features in a rough sketch.
4. Ink clean line art on its own layer.
5. Fill flat color on separate layers beneath.
6. Add hard-edged shading on clipped layers.
7. Refine proportions and line weight.
8. Export a PNG for stills or a layered PSD for After Effects.

Once you've finished one frame, you have a reusable visual identity for the character. Whether you rig it in After Effects, animate it frame by frame, or use it as a reference for restyling footage, the fundamentals stay the same: a clear silhouette, simplified shapes, and deliberate exaggeration.

To cartoon a photo in Procreate, import the photo, lower its opacity, lock it, and trace simplified, slightly exaggerated line art on a new layer above it. Then add flat color on separate layers beneath the lines and finish with shading on clipped layers. The result depends on how you simplify and exaggerate the reference. The steps below take you from a blank canvas to a layered file you can use in a motion or compositing pipeline.

What You Need Before You Start

• Procreate on an iPad, ideally with an Apple Pencil
• A photo with clear lighting and a face or subject with some distinctive features
• A canvas large enough to zoom into without losing detail

Reference choice matters more than most tutorials admit. A photo with a distinctive profile, an interesting hairstyle, a strong pose, or an expressive face gives you more to push. Generic, evenly lit, average-looking faces are harder to stylize because there is less to exaggerate.

Step 1: Set Up the Canvas

Create a custom canvas from the plus icon in the Gallery. A common choice is 3000 × 3000 px for a square, or 3000 × 4000 px at 300 DPI for a portrait. Whatever you choose, keep it large enough to zoom in tightly on eyes, hands, and hair.

If the file will end up in After Effects or Premiere Pro, think about delivery now. Pick a canvas that matches or exceeds your composition's aspect ratio, because upscaling a small raster later softens your line work.

Step 2: Import and Prepare the Photo

1. Tap the wrench icon, open Add, and choose Insert a photo.
2. Scale and position it so the part you want to draw fills the canvas. You can cartoon a full figure or just a head and shoulders; the process is the same.
3. Tap the layer's N to open its settings and lower the opacity until the photo is a pale guide.
4. Swipe the layer left and lock it so you can't draw on it by accident.

Create a new layer above the photo for your outlines. Keep every stage of the drawing on its own layer from the start. It makes later changes much easier and gives you separated elements if you plan to animate.

Step 3: Simplify and Exaggerate Before You Ink

Tracing exactly what you see produces a traced photo, not a cartoon. The cartoon look comes from two decisions:

• Simplify. Remove detail that doesn't define the person. A complicated hair silhouette becomes a few confident shapes. Skin texture, pores, and minor wrinkles mostly go away.
• Exaggerate. Push the features that make the subject recognizable. If the nose is long, make it a bit longer. If the jaw is square, make it blockier. Change curves so they become longer, shorter, rounder, or flatter.

Try a rough sketch on a separate layer first. Break the head into basic sections (cranium, jaw, nose, ears, hair mass) and redraw each in a simpler, more stylized form. Draw a few variations. The first one is rarely the best.

Step 4: Draw the Line Art

On the layer above the photo:

• Choose an inking brush. The Studio Pen in the Inking set is a reliable, crisp choice, and any ink-marker style brush works for a graphic look.
• Raise the brush's Stabilization (in Brush Studio, under Stabilization) so your lines come out smoother.
• Use dark brown or another dark color instead of pure black if you want a softer look. You can also sample a darker tone from the photo for the hair or lips.

Work in short, deliberate strokes. Map out the main facial features first: eyes, brows, nose, mouth, cheek lines, and jaw. Then add hair and body. Use fewer lines than the photo suggests, and give hair and clothing their own layers so you can hide them while working on other areas.

Close your shapes. Gaps in the outline are the most common reason a fill leaks into the wrong area when you use ColorDrop in the next step.

Step 5: Add Flat Color

Create a new layer beneath the line art for each major color area: skin, hair, clothing, background. Then:

• Drag a color from the Color Disc into a closed shape to fill it (ColorDrop), or select an area with the Selection tool and fill it.
• Sample colors from the original photo by touching and holding with the Eyedropper. Raising the photo opacity temporarily helps.
• Push saturation slightly beyond the photo for a more illustrated feel.

If a fill leaks, adjust the ColorDrop Threshold while holding, or close the gap on the line layer and try again.

A useful production habit is to paint a single flat silhouette shape on its own layer, then use it as a base for Alpha Lock or Clipping Mask layers above it. Every shading pass then stays inside the shape without erasing.

Step 6: Shade and Highlight

Add new layers above each color layer and set them to Clipping Mask. Use these for:

• Shadows: Set the layer to Multiply and paint with a desaturated purple or warm brown.
• Highlights: Use a lighter tone in Normal, Add, or Overlay.
• Blush, rim light, and accents: Keep them on their own layers so you can adjust opacity independently.

Cartoon shading usually means hard-edged shapes with a limited number of steps: one shadow tone, one highlight tone, maybe an accent. Soft airbrushing pushes the image back toward realism. You can still use a soft brush sparingly for cheeks or a gentle gradient in the background.

Hide the photo layer periodically to check whether the drawing reads on its own.

Step 7: Refine and Check

Before exporting, run through these quick checks:

• Proportions: Use Transform or Liquify on a selection to nudge an eye, nose, or ear.
• Line weight: Vary thickness slightly, with heavier lines on the outer silhouette and lighter ones for interior detail.
• Edge cleanup: Use the Eraser on the line layer, or a clipped layer, rather than erasing color layers.
• Value check: Temporarily add a black-and-white adjustment layer to confirm the main shapes read clearly.

Three-finger scrub clears a layer if you want to restart a section, and a two-finger tap undoes your last stroke.

Step 8: Export for Your Pipeline

For still delivery, export a PNG with transparency (hide the background layer) or a flattened JPEG. For motion work, export a layered PSD from the Share menu. Both After Effects and Photoshop read the layers, so your outlines, color, shading, and background arrive separated.

To prep a PSD for After Effects:

• Name layers clearly before exporting (Procreate layer names carry over).
• Keep the background on its own layer, so you can swap it for a comp background.
• Split moving parts onto separate layers: eyes, eyelids, mouth, hair, arms. You'll need clean overlap areas if you rig the character, so paint slightly past visible edges where one element sits behind another.

Using the Cartoon in Motion Work

A single illustrated frame is a finished piece for social or print. For video, it is usually a starting point. A few practical routes:

• Cut-out animation in After Effects: Import the PSD as a composition, parent the layers, and animate with a puppet rig or a tool like Duik. This works well for simple talking-head or explainer-style characters.
• Procreate's Animation Assist: Good for short frame-by-frame loops, but you redraw each frame by hand.
• Style reference for an existing shot: Use your finished frame as the target look when you need live footage or a 3D render to match.

That third route is where hand-drawn work and AI tools can meet without replacing the artist's decisions.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Procreate is the right tool for designing the look: you decide the line weight, palette, shapes, and level of exaggeration. Hand-redrawing that look on every frame of a video is slow, though. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool that can help carry a look you've established across moving footage, using your Procreate cartoon as a style reference.

This is not a substitute for learning how to simplify and exaggerate a face. The Procreate design work is what gives the style reference its identity. The tool's job is to extend that decision across motion, so you spend your time directing the result instead of redrawing it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Tracing every detail. More lines make the result look like an outlined photo.
• Working on one layer. You lose the ability to adjust color, lines, or shading independently.
• Leaving gaps in outlines. Fills leak and cleanup takes longer than closing the line.
• Over-blending shading. Smooth gradients on every surface weaken the cartoon look.
• Using a tiny canvas. You can't zoom in for eyes and hands, and the file won't hold up in a video comp.

Quick Recap

1. Create a large canvas.
2. Insert the photo, lower its opacity, and lock it.
3. Simplify and exaggerate the features in a rough sketch.
4. Ink clean line art on its own layer.
5. Fill flat color on separate layers beneath.
6. Add hard-edged shading on clipped layers.
7. Refine proportions and line weight.
8. Export a PNG for stills or a layered PSD for After Effects.

Once you've finished one frame, you have a reusable visual identity for the character. Whether you rig it in After Effects, animate it frame by frame, or use it as a reference for restyling footage, the fundamentals stay the same: a clear silhouette, simplified shapes, and deliberate exaggeration.