To change transparency in Procreate, use the opacity slider that matches what you want to fade. For a brush, drag the lower slider in the sidebar. For a whole layer, tap the "N" next to the layer name and drag the slider. For a selected area, use two-finger touch on the layer and slide left or right on the canvas. For the entire contents of the active layer, you can also use Adjustments > Opacity.

Procreate handles transparency at several levels, and each behaves differently. Some are non-destructive and some are baked in as soon as you commit them. If you move Procreate art into After Effects, Photoshop-style layer stacks, or a compositing pipeline, the distinction matters.

The Four Places Transparency Lives in Procreate

Procreate uses "opacity" for how visible pixels are: 100% is fully visible, 50% is half see-through. You can control it for:

• The brush (how strongly a stroke lays down paint)
• A layer as a whole
• A selected area of pixels on a layer
• The full contents of the active layer, via the Adjustments menu

Picking the right one up front saves cleanup later. Brush opacity is a painting decision, layer opacity is a compositing decision, and selection and Adjustments opacity are edits to the pixels themselves.

How to Change Brush Opacity

Brush opacity controls how transparent new strokes are as you draw.

1. Select a brush.
2. Find the two sliders in the sidebar. The upper one is size, the lower one is opacity.
3. Drag the lower slider up to increase opacity, or down to decrease it.

This affects only strokes you make afterward. Existing marks don't change.

When Brush Opacity Doesn't Behave

The opacity of many brushes is also affected by Apple Pencil pressure. If your slider is at maximum and strokes still look faint, you may be running into pressure issues, so check Procreate's pressure settings and guidance. If you're using a finger or a non-pressure stylus, the problem is usually the slider rather than the pressure.

Build Up Transparency with Layering Strokes

If you want glazed, buildup-style transparency, paint multiple strokes (lifting between them) or put the paint on its own layer and adjust the layer opacity afterward. That second option keeps your decision editable.

How to Change Layer Opacity

This is the method most artists need, and the most pipeline-friendly.

1. Tap the Layers icon at the top right.
2. Tap the small letter next to the layer's name. It shows "N" by default.
3. Drag the opacity slider that appears beneath it.

Because you can return to this slider and change it as many times as you want, layer opacity is non-destructive. The underlying pixels stay untouched. That makes it the best choice for anything you might want to revisit: a shadow layer, a glow pass, a tracing reference, a texture overlay.

Layer Opacity vs. Blend Mode

The same panel lets you switch blend modes. These interact with opacity. A Multiply layer at 40% reads very differently from a Normal layer at 40%. If a layer looks wrong after you lower its opacity, check the blend mode before assuming the opacity value is the problem.

Clipping Masks

Clipping masks are often confused with transparency control. A layer clipped to the layer below only shows where the base layer has pixels. This is useful for shading and texture without touching the base art. Opacity on the clipped layer only fades the clipped content.

This keeps the underlying shapes intact, which makes later changes cheaper.

How to Change Opacity of a Selection

If you want to fade only part of a layer, Procreate has a gesture-based method.

1. Open Selections and choose a method at the bottom.
2. Make your selection.
3. Open Layers and tap the layer containing the paint with two fingers at the same time.
4. Slide a finger left on the canvas to decrease opacity, or right to increase it.

Once you exit this mode, the change is applied to the pixels. This is destructive in the sense that you can't return and keep adjusting it later. You can undo it right after applying it, but later in the project it's a final edit. If you might want to revisit the effect, move the region to its own layer first and use layer opacity instead.

How to Use Adjustments > Opacity

For the whole contents of the active layer, there's a dedicated tool in the Adjustments menu.

1. Select the layer.
2. Tap the Adjustments icon and choose Opacity.
3. Slide your finger left or right on the canvas. A blue bar at the top labeled "Slide to adjust" shows the current value. It starts at 100%.
4. Use the buttons at the bottom to cancel, undo, redo, or reset.
5. Tap the Adjustments icon again, or choose another tool, to commit the change.

Tapping Cancel exits without applying anything. The result is similar to layer opacity, but it's committed on exit, so treat it as a pixel edit. For most workflows the layer slider is a better default.

Availability and menu placement can vary between Procreate versions. If you don't see the option, check the current Procreate Handbook for your version.

Make Parts of Your Artwork Truly Transparent

Opacity makes something partly see-through. Truly transparent areas, with no pixels at all, are a separate matter, and they decide whether your export has an alpha channel.

• Erase: remove pixels with the eraser.
• Hide the background: if the canvas background is visible, your canvas has a solid color and your export may too, so hide it before exporting.
• Select and clear: make a selection, then clear it.

Export Transparency for Compositing

If the artwork is headed for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D, export settings matter as much as the opacity values.

• PNG: supports transparency, so hide the background first. Good for single flattened elements.
• Layered formats: check which formats keep your layers, opacity, and blend modes, and confirm that blend modes translate the way you expect, since mapping between apps isn't always one-to-one.
• TIFF and other formats: check what the format supports before relying on it for alpha.
• JPEG: has no alpha channel. Transparent areas will be filled.

Once the file is in your compositing app, check how it interprets the alpha. A wrong straight-versus-premultiplied setting is a common cause of dark or light fringes around soft edges, especially on low-opacity brush work like smoke, glows, and feathered shadows.

A practical habit for pipeline work: keep each element on its own layer, leave opacity decisions on the layer slider, and export layered files or separate PNGs. That way, final opacity and blend choices can be made in the comp, where you can see them in context.

Troubleshooting Common Opacity Problems

Strokes look too faint even at 100%. Check Apple Pencil pressure settings, the brush's own opacity behavior, and whether you're painting on a clipped layer or one with reduced opacity.

Layer opacity slider doesn't seem to do anything. The layer may be empty, or you may be adjusting a different layer than the one you're looking at. Also check whether a group has its own opacity.

Exported PNG has a white background. The background is probably still visible. Hide it and re-export.

Edges look dirty after import. Look at the alpha interpretation in your compositing app, and consider whether soft-edged brushes were painted over a colored layer that you later hid.

Can't re-adjust a selection fade. Selection opacity is applied once you exit. Undo immediately, or redo the edit on its own layer with the layer slider.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Procreate is a strong place to draw and paint elements with clean transparency. Many motion pipelines then need those elements to move or change style, and that's where Styleframe can sit beside your existing tools.

Keep the same discipline you'd apply to Procreate exports: confirm how alpha is handled in each step, and keep elements separate until you're ready to comp.

Quick Reference

For anything you may want to change later, use the layer opacity slider. Reserve selection and Adjustments opacity for edits you're ready to commit.

To change transparency in Procreate, use the opacity slider that matches what you want to fade. For a brush, drag the lower slider in the sidebar. For a whole layer, tap the "N" next to the layer name and drag the slider. For a selected area, use two-finger touch on the layer and slide left or right on the canvas. For the entire contents of the active layer, you can also use Adjustments > Opacity.

Procreate handles transparency at several levels, and each behaves differently. Some are non-destructive and some are baked in as soon as you commit them. If you move Procreate art into After Effects, Photoshop-style layer stacks, or a compositing pipeline, the distinction matters.

The Four Places Transparency Lives in Procreate

Procreate uses "opacity" for how visible pixels are: 100% is fully visible, 50% is half see-through. You can control it for:

• The brush (how strongly a stroke lays down paint)
• A layer as a whole
• A selected area of pixels on a layer
• The full contents of the active layer, via the Adjustments menu

Picking the right one up front saves cleanup later. Brush opacity is a painting decision, layer opacity is a compositing decision, and selection and Adjustments opacity are edits to the pixels themselves.

How to Change Brush Opacity

Brush opacity controls how transparent new strokes are as you draw.

1. Select a brush.
2. Find the two sliders in the sidebar. The upper one is size, the lower one is opacity.
3. Drag the lower slider up to increase opacity, or down to decrease it.

This affects only strokes you make afterward. Existing marks don't change.

When Brush Opacity Doesn't Behave

The opacity of many brushes is also affected by Apple Pencil pressure. If your slider is at maximum and strokes still look faint, you may be running into pressure issues, so check Procreate's pressure settings and guidance. If you're using a finger or a non-pressure stylus, the problem is usually the slider rather than the pressure.

Build Up Transparency with Layering Strokes

If you want glazed, buildup-style transparency, paint multiple strokes (lifting between them) or put the paint on its own layer and adjust the layer opacity afterward. That second option keeps your decision editable.

How to Change Layer Opacity

This is the method most artists need, and the most pipeline-friendly.

1. Tap the Layers icon at the top right.
2. Tap the small letter next to the layer's name. It shows "N" by default.
3. Drag the opacity slider that appears beneath it.

Because you can return to this slider and change it as many times as you want, layer opacity is non-destructive. The underlying pixels stay untouched. That makes it the best choice for anything you might want to revisit: a shadow layer, a glow pass, a tracing reference, a texture overlay.

Layer Opacity vs. Blend Mode

The same panel lets you switch blend modes. These interact with opacity. A Multiply layer at 40% reads very differently from a Normal layer at 40%. If a layer looks wrong after you lower its opacity, check the blend mode before assuming the opacity value is the problem.

Clipping Masks

Clipping masks are often confused with transparency control. A layer clipped to the layer below only shows where the base layer has pixels. This is useful for shading and texture without touching the base art. Opacity on the clipped layer only fades the clipped content.

This keeps the underlying shapes intact, which makes later changes cheaper.

How to Change Opacity of a Selection

If you want to fade only part of a layer, Procreate has a gesture-based method.

1. Open Selections and choose a method at the bottom.
2. Make your selection.
3. Open Layers and tap the layer containing the paint with two fingers at the same time.
4. Slide a finger left on the canvas to decrease opacity, or right to increase it.

Once you exit this mode, the change is applied to the pixels. This is destructive in the sense that you can't return and keep adjusting it later. You can undo it right after applying it, but later in the project it's a final edit. If you might want to revisit the effect, move the region to its own layer first and use layer opacity instead.

How to Use Adjustments > Opacity

For the whole contents of the active layer, there's a dedicated tool in the Adjustments menu.

1. Select the layer.
2. Tap the Adjustments icon and choose Opacity.
3. Slide your finger left or right on the canvas. A blue bar at the top labeled "Slide to adjust" shows the current value. It starts at 100%.
4. Use the buttons at the bottom to cancel, undo, redo, or reset.
5. Tap the Adjustments icon again, or choose another tool, to commit the change.

Tapping Cancel exits without applying anything. The result is similar to layer opacity, but it's committed on exit, so treat it as a pixel edit. For most workflows the layer slider is a better default.

Availability and menu placement can vary between Procreate versions. If you don't see the option, check the current Procreate Handbook for your version.

Make Parts of Your Artwork Truly Transparent

Opacity makes something partly see-through. Truly transparent areas, with no pixels at all, are a separate matter, and they decide whether your export has an alpha channel.

• Erase: remove pixels with the eraser.
• Hide the background: if the canvas background is visible, your canvas has a solid color and your export may too, so hide it before exporting.
• Select and clear: make a selection, then clear it.

Export Transparency for Compositing

If the artwork is headed for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D, export settings matter as much as the opacity values.

• PNG: supports transparency, so hide the background first. Good for single flattened elements.
• Layered formats: check which formats keep your layers, opacity, and blend modes, and confirm that blend modes translate the way you expect, since mapping between apps isn't always one-to-one.
• TIFF and other formats: check what the format supports before relying on it for alpha.
• JPEG: has no alpha channel. Transparent areas will be filled.

Once the file is in your compositing app, check how it interprets the alpha. A wrong straight-versus-premultiplied setting is a common cause of dark or light fringes around soft edges, especially on low-opacity brush work like smoke, glows, and feathered shadows.

A practical habit for pipeline work: keep each element on its own layer, leave opacity decisions on the layer slider, and export layered files or separate PNGs. That way, final opacity and blend choices can be made in the comp, where you can see them in context.

Troubleshooting Common Opacity Problems

Strokes look too faint even at 100%. Check Apple Pencil pressure settings, the brush's own opacity behavior, and whether you're painting on a clipped layer or one with reduced opacity.

Layer opacity slider doesn't seem to do anything. The layer may be empty, or you may be adjusting a different layer than the one you're looking at. Also check whether a group has its own opacity.

Exported PNG has a white background. The background is probably still visible. Hide it and re-export.

Edges look dirty after import. Look at the alpha interpretation in your compositing app, and consider whether soft-edged brushes were painted over a colored layer that you later hid.

Can't re-adjust a selection fade. Selection opacity is applied once you exit. Undo immediately, or redo the edit on its own layer with the layer slider.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Procreate is a strong place to draw and paint elements with clean transparency. Many motion pipelines then need those elements to move or change style, and that's where Styleframe can sit beside your existing tools.

Keep the same discipline you'd apply to Procreate exports: confirm how alpha is handled in each step, and keep elements separate until you're ready to comp.

Quick Reference

For anything you may want to change later, use the layer opacity slider. Reserve selection and Adjustments opacity for edits you're ready to commit.