To clone in Procreate, tap the Adjustments icon (the magic wand), choose Clone, drag the disc to the area you want to copy, then paint anywhere else on the canvas with any brush. The pixels inside the disc are painted wherever you stroke. The size slider sets the clone area and the strength slider sets how solid it is. Tap the Adjustments icon again to commit.

This guide covers the Clone tool step by step, how to keep clones from looking like obvious duplicates, what to use when Clone is the wrong tool, and how it fits into a motion or VFX pipeline.

What the Clone Tool Does in Procreate

Clone is a paint-based duplication tool inside the Adjustments menu. It works like a clone stamp: you pick a source region, then paint that region onto another part of the same layer or canvas. Because it behaves as a brush, you get soft edges, pressure response, and grain instead of the hard edges of a copy-paste.

Common uses include:

• Removing blemishes or unwanted marks from scanned textures and paper photos
• Filling a background with more of an existing texture
• Repeating hand-drawn motifs such as leaves, stars, or foliage without redrawing them
• Patching areas of an illustration before you export it for animation

One limit to know up front: Clone does not work while you are 3D painting. It is a 2D pixel tool.

Step-by-Step: How to Use Clone in Procreate

1. Select the layer

Choose the layer you want to paint on. If you want to keep the original intact, add a new layer first.

2. Open Clone from Adjustments

Tap the magic wand icon and choose Clone. A disc appears in the middle of the canvas. That disc is your source.

3. Position the source disc

Drag the disc over the area you want to duplicate. Whatever sits inside the disc is what gets painted when you start a stroke.

4. Choose a brush

The paint tool icon changes slightly while Clone is active. Tap it to pick a different brush. Any Procreate brush can be a clone brush, so a textured or grainy brush gives very different results from a hard round brush.

5. Set size and strength

The upper slider controls the size of the area you are painting to. The lower slider controls strength, meaning how transparent or solid the cloned result is. Lower strength is useful for blending repairs into surrounding texture.

6. Paint the clone

Stroke with a finger or Apple Pencil. The source area is replicated where you paint. The disc moves along with your stroke, so each new stroke after you lift starts sampling from the disc's new position.

7. Lock the disc when you need a fixed source

Press and hold the disc for a moment. It pulses and a Clone lock message appears in the notifications bar. Now every stroke samples from the same spot. Press and hold again to unlock.

8. Commit

Tap the Adjustments icon again to commit and leave the tool. You can also tap another primary tool. If the paint tool is in use by the adjustment, press and hold on it briefly to close out. Use a two-finger tap to undo.

Making Clones Look Less Like Clones

The most common failure is a visible repeat. A few habits help.

Unlock the disc for organic work. When the disc follows your stroke, the source shifts continuously, so repeated strokes rarely reproduce the same shape.

Vary pressure. Different pressure changes the opacity and silhouette of each stroke, which breaks up identical outlines. This is especially useful for foliage, crowds of small objects, or any repeated organic shape.

Use a grain brush. A brush with texture breaks up the edges of the cloned area so it blends with its surroundings.

Lower the strength slider for repairs. When removing blemishes from a texture, build up the patch in several light passes rather than one heavy stroke.

Re-sample often. If you are covering a large area, move the disc between strokes so the repair does not show a pattern.

When Clone Is the Wrong Tool

Clone is for painterly, partial duplication. For exact duplicates, other Procreate methods are faster.

• Duplicate a layer: use the Duplicate option for the layer in the Layers panel. Use this when you need an identical copy you can transform later.
• Copy and paste a selection: use the Selection tool (freehand works well), enclose the area, then swipe down with three fingers to open the Copy & Paste menu. Choose the option that duplicates or cuts and pastes, then drag the result into position.
• Pattern repeats: for seamless tiles, clone can build a base, but you still need to verify the repeat.

A good rule: if you need an exact, transformable copy, duplicate the layer or selection. If you want to paint in a copy with soft, irregular edges, use Clone.

Taking Cloned Art Into a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, Procreate is often the place where a style frame, texture, or character element gets painted before it moves into After Effects, Cinema 4D, Blender, or Nuke. A few practical points make that handoff cleaner.

Keep cloned fixes on their own layers. Because Clone paints pixels, a repair on the same layer as your linework is permanent once committed. Painting onto a new layer preserves non-destructive flexibility, which matters when an art director asks for changes later.

Keep layers separate for handoff. Separate layers give you flexibility for parallax, camera moves, or per-layer animation. Check that your cloned patches did not bleed across layers you intended to animate independently.

Match your destination's tools. If you need to clone after import, check your compositing tools for similar functions, which can work on footage over time. For stills and textures, Procreate is fine. For sequences, cloning in comp is usually the right place.

Plan texture work around resolution. Cloning in Procreate is bound by canvas resolution. If your final deliverable is 4K, set up your canvas for it from the start rather than upscaling after you've painted.

Quick Reference

Final Notes

Procreate's Clone tool is simple once you know the pieces: the disc sets the source, the brush sets the character, the sliders set size and strength, and the lock keeps your sample stable. Use it on a separate layer, vary your strokes so repeats don't read as copies, and reach for layer duplication when you need exact copies. Once the frame is finished, decide whether it stays a still asset or becomes the starting point for motion in your wider pipeline.

To clone in Procreate, tap the Adjustments icon (the magic wand), choose Clone, drag the disc to the area you want to copy, then paint anywhere else on the canvas with any brush. The pixels inside the disc are painted wherever you stroke. The size slider sets the clone area and the strength slider sets how solid it is. Tap the Adjustments icon again to commit.

This guide covers the Clone tool step by step, how to keep clones from looking like obvious duplicates, what to use when Clone is the wrong tool, and how it fits into a motion or VFX pipeline.

What the Clone Tool Does in Procreate

Clone is a paint-based duplication tool inside the Adjustments menu. It works like a clone stamp: you pick a source region, then paint that region onto another part of the same layer or canvas. Because it behaves as a brush, you get soft edges, pressure response, and grain instead of the hard edges of a copy-paste.

Common uses include:

• Removing blemishes or unwanted marks from scanned textures and paper photos
• Filling a background with more of an existing texture
• Repeating hand-drawn motifs such as leaves, stars, or foliage without redrawing them
• Patching areas of an illustration before you export it for animation

One limit to know up front: Clone does not work while you are 3D painting. It is a 2D pixel tool.

Step-by-Step: How to Use Clone in Procreate

1. Select the layer

Choose the layer you want to paint on. If you want to keep the original intact, add a new layer first.

2. Open Clone from Adjustments

Tap the magic wand icon and choose Clone. A disc appears in the middle of the canvas. That disc is your source.

3. Position the source disc

Drag the disc over the area you want to duplicate. Whatever sits inside the disc is what gets painted when you start a stroke.

4. Choose a brush

The paint tool icon changes slightly while Clone is active. Tap it to pick a different brush. Any Procreate brush can be a clone brush, so a textured or grainy brush gives very different results from a hard round brush.

5. Set size and strength

The upper slider controls the size of the area you are painting to. The lower slider controls strength, meaning how transparent or solid the cloned result is. Lower strength is useful for blending repairs into surrounding texture.

6. Paint the clone

Stroke with a finger or Apple Pencil. The source area is replicated where you paint. The disc moves along with your stroke, so each new stroke after you lift starts sampling from the disc's new position.

7. Lock the disc when you need a fixed source

Press and hold the disc for a moment. It pulses and a Clone lock message appears in the notifications bar. Now every stroke samples from the same spot. Press and hold again to unlock.

8. Commit

Tap the Adjustments icon again to commit and leave the tool. You can also tap another primary tool. If the paint tool is in use by the adjustment, press and hold on it briefly to close out. Use a two-finger tap to undo.

Making Clones Look Less Like Clones

The most common failure is a visible repeat. A few habits help.

Unlock the disc for organic work. When the disc follows your stroke, the source shifts continuously, so repeated strokes rarely reproduce the same shape.

Vary pressure. Different pressure changes the opacity and silhouette of each stroke, which breaks up identical outlines. This is especially useful for foliage, crowds of small objects, or any repeated organic shape.

Use a grain brush. A brush with texture breaks up the edges of the cloned area so it blends with its surroundings.

Lower the strength slider for repairs. When removing blemishes from a texture, build up the patch in several light passes rather than one heavy stroke.

Re-sample often. If you are covering a large area, move the disc between strokes so the repair does not show a pattern.

When Clone Is the Wrong Tool

Clone is for painterly, partial duplication. For exact duplicates, other Procreate methods are faster.

• Duplicate a layer: use the Duplicate option for the layer in the Layers panel. Use this when you need an identical copy you can transform later.
• Copy and paste a selection: use the Selection tool (freehand works well), enclose the area, then swipe down with three fingers to open the Copy & Paste menu. Choose the option that duplicates or cuts and pastes, then drag the result into position.
• Pattern repeats: for seamless tiles, clone can build a base, but you still need to verify the repeat.

A good rule: if you need an exact, transformable copy, duplicate the layer or selection. If you want to paint in a copy with soft, irregular edges, use Clone.

Taking Cloned Art Into a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, Procreate is often the place where a style frame, texture, or character element gets painted before it moves into After Effects, Cinema 4D, Blender, or Nuke. A few practical points make that handoff cleaner.

Keep cloned fixes on their own layers. Because Clone paints pixels, a repair on the same layer as your linework is permanent once committed. Painting onto a new layer preserves non-destructive flexibility, which matters when an art director asks for changes later.

Keep layers separate for handoff. Separate layers give you flexibility for parallax, camera moves, or per-layer animation. Check that your cloned patches did not bleed across layers you intended to animate independently.

Match your destination's tools. If you need to clone after import, check your compositing tools for similar functions, which can work on footage over time. For stills and textures, Procreate is fine. For sequences, cloning in comp is usually the right place.

Plan texture work around resolution. Cloning in Procreate is bound by canvas resolution. If your final deliverable is 4K, set up your canvas for it from the start rather than upscaling after you've painted.

Quick Reference

Final Notes

Procreate's Clone tool is simple once you know the pieces: the disc sets the source, the brush sets the character, the sliders set size and strength, and the lock keeps your sample stable. Use it on a separate layer, vary your strokes so repeats don't read as copies, and reach for layer duplication when you need exact copies. Once the frame is finished, decide whether it stays a still asset or becomes the starting point for motion in your wider pipeline.