# Animation Pro — user reviews > 89 indexed App Store user reviews of Animation Pro by Stephen Keen, rated 3.90/5 from 145 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/animation-pro/id1098505288/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/animation-pro/id1098505288.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 82 · 4★ 19 · 3★ 10 · 2★ 9 · 1★ 25 ## What do users think of Animation Pro? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🎬 Powerful skeletal/rigging animation capabilities - 💰 Excellent value for price point - 📚 Comprehensive tutorial videos and documentation - 🤖 Automatic lip-syncing feature - ⚡ Efficient tweening system saves time - 🎨 Customizable character figures and rigging - 📤 Multiple export options including PNG sequences - 🔧 Advanced features for professional animators - 👨‍💼 Responsive developer support - 🖼️ Easy integration with Procreate and other design apps **Cons** - 📚 Steep learning curve for beginners - 🖌️ Drawing tools are limited and difficult to use - 🎯 Non-intuitive user interface - 🔊 Audio issues with music interruption - ⌛ Time-consuming to master - 🖼️ Outdated visual design and aesthetics - 🎨 Drawing functionality inadequate for frame-by-frame animation - ⚙️ Complex workflow with many compartmentalized menus - 📱 Apple Pencil compatibility issues - 🎬 Limited for traditional frame-by-frame animation **Commonly reported bugs** - Camera orientation flips from landscape to portrait unexpectedly - Apple Pencil not working in figure editor - Apple Pencil extremely sensitive in drawing tools - Audio playback pauses music when using AirPods - Program sounds play despite silent mode or headphones - App crashes when exporting large files - Memory warnings during export - Drawing marks undo automatically - PNG import not working while JPG works - Tutorial videos don't match current app version - Import functionality issues with graphics - GIF import converts to static image **Most requested features** - Parabolic/curved motion tweening - Inverse kinematics (IK) for bones - SVG file import support - Vector file import capability - Ability to draw directly on backgrounds - Multiple handles on images with weight distribution - Complex binding between handle properties - Clipping masks for custom shapes - Snapping to whole numbers - Modern UI redesign - Light theme option - Custom stage/canvas size options - Ability to extend frame duration by dragging - Layering system for backgrounds and foreground - Transparent/HEVC background support - Rotating bones for 3D-like effects - Better brush options for drawing - Frame-by-frame drawing animation mode - Timeline with individual frame control - Scrolling background functionality ## Newest reviews (16 of 89) ### 4/5 — Amost perfect *2022-07-09* The lack of parabolic tween is unfortunate… but it have a lot of great quality ### 4/5 — Powerful, requires learning. *2022-06-28* This app is brilliant, I understand frustration of not getting a cartoon done right away, because there is a lot that can be done in it but is not very intuitive at first. There is also some major room for improvement, my main complaints now would be that there is some bugs on the audio: the clicking sounds in the program sound on the iPad speaker even if on silent mode or if you have AirPods on, also if you try to use AirPods for music while using it, every time there is a sound in the program it pauses the music. A new, more modern UI would be greatly appreciated as well. Hope the developers see this and can update the app. **Developer response:** Thank you for the feedback. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘clicking’ sounds in the audio. Please take a look at the ‘Audio’ preferences (these are accessible from Animation Pro’s ‘Projects’ screen - press the button that looks like a cog, top right). Here you can turn off all of the interface sounds (chimes, clicks etc.) and toggle a setting that will allow the audio, from other Apps, to continue whilst you are using Animation Pro. Finally there is a Bluetooth output option there that may help to deliver better audio quality to your ears. If, however, you are experiencing noise in audio captured by your iPad, you may try turning down the microphone gain (a button to do this will be present next to the microphone button when initiating recording). Because the iPad’s microphone can be quite sensitive, I find it best to lay the device down on a soft surface when recording. I hope that helps. All the very best with your animations! ### 4/5 — Fantastic *2022-06-14* Fantastic but could you incorporate the ability to draw straight on background please….be the icing on the cake😀 **Developer response:** Thank you for giving Animation Pro a good rating and for your suggestion. For the time being, have you tried adding a blank image as a figure and then drawing upon that (choose ‘Image as Figure’ from the ‘Add’ menu and then ‘BLANK’ when the File Manager is displayed)? That will also give you the ability to perform all of Animation Pro’s figure effects etc. on the image. ### 5/5 — Confusing at first but Outstanding program *2022-01-29* I love Animation pro and is the main program I use to animate my videos. This app can be overwhelming when you first get it, but put in a few hours of getting to know it and it will become a very easy way of animation. I believe that this is way worth the money and is 100% worth it if you do this for a living or even just for a hobby. Easiest 5 stars I have ever given to an app. Thank you for reading this and hope that you consider downloading Animation Pro!! ### 4/5 — It’s good but please update it *2021-12-30* It’s the best app at the moment for animation but there are a few things that would improve it. bone rigging and Copy and paste multiple frames. Thanks ### 4/5 — What i mean by rotating rig *2021-12-12* There is an animation software called moho witch uses rotating bones which are handles aswell and it will rotate the figure as much as you want for example instead of the figure facing the front it turns to the side using the handle/bone I dont want to use moho as its much harder and i am used to animation pro (also cause moho costs more money) **Developer response:** Thank you for the 4 stars and constructive feedback. In Animation Pro, figure transforms, such as rotations, may be performed via the Animation Pro Figure Inspector. I'm thus assuming that, in addition to rotation dial in the Figure Inspector, you would also like an extra 'handle' on the figures to perform rotations? ### 5/5 — Best app for animation there is for puppet animation! *2021-11-27, version 2.3* This is the best app for the iPad if yo do puppet cut out animation, or frame by frame. You will not find one better. I suggest you spend time learning just how packed with features this app is. The creator has gone to a lot of trouble and time making many useful tutorial videos. I have no affiliation with the maker of this app. But I spent time studying how to use it and the creator answered all my questions quickly and pleasantly. My advice is if you animate and want a very useful app get this one. ### 5/5 — Almost everything *2021-11-16* add these things and the app will be perfect for me 1. snapping to whole numbers 2. multiple handles on images and % weights for those handles 3. complex bindings between any handle’s props to another handle’s props (rotation on A effects scale on B, etc) 4. clipping masks (hide parts of image with custom shapes) let me just also add that this is the best money for an app ive spend on the app store, you have done amazing work here. i just hope you really consider my above feature requests **Developer response:** Thank you for the kind words and the 5-star rating. I believe that I received an email from you the other day regarding the suggestions in this review. Please take a look in your inbox for my reply. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2021-10-30, version 2.3* I am used to Moho bone system. I have been looking for the similar app on IPAD, finally I found this app. At beginning, I was so confused and had troubles to do adjust drawings with bone system. Now I figured out my way to do it. Plus I really appreciate the “key”function, help me understand so much. ### 5/5 — Beat in class for iPad *2021-10-16* I’m thoroughly enjoying Animation Pro! Astounding number of features and capabilities and the UI is sublime. Ive. scoured the best in class tutorials and have learned at a rapid pace, all of this due to how this app all comes together. For the iPad, if you’re on mobile only, there is no better Animation app available, at any price point. It marries the capabilities of the iPad with the best of desktop animation tools. THANK YOU for this app! **Developer response:** Thank you so much for leaving such a positive review. It's the very thing that keeps me going with Animation Pro! ### 4/5 — Png sequence export! V.1.4 *2021-10-05* V2.3 The new pixelate filter is a game changer. Now I can do pixel art animation in Animation Pro! V 1.5 Now has pallet saving! Thanks for listening! Still needs it throughout the creation process though. Tedious selecting exact color every time. Thanks for adding onion skin Some very useful features added in this update. Feature Requests - .SVG import (to use with figure creation) - Inverse kinematics? Old Review: All this app needed to rise above any competition was better export options. PNG export makes this a good buy. I use it with the Hyperpad game development app. Now this needs some motion tweening along curves. Pretty advanced animation app! A light theme would be good too. A bit of re-design and polish would help also. Took away a star. Needs a pen tool for Crop Image. Also we should be able to set a custom stage size or crop the render area upon export. **Developer response:** Thanks for the additional review! I'm really glad to hear that you are finding the new figure stylisations useful! ### 5/5 — Confusing for me to learn but willing! Please keep developing this app! You’re doing awesome! *2021-09-25, version 2.3* Absolutely love this app even if I don’t know how to use it properly. I’m still learning. Keep on developing it please! This is a game changer for iPad users. It’s like toon boom for iPad. Not as many features but it’s a great app. Please please keep developing! ### 3/5 — Not enough characters *2021-09-15* I think that the app is very good but I am someone who wants to animate characters but the only characters are aliens and space people where I wanted to make and design my own without drawing them Please can u give me your email so I can request refund **Developer response:** Animation Pro includes a Figure Editor that will allow you to construct your own figures. When creating your own figures you don’t have to necessarily draw your own body parts i.e. you can choose to use existing images from your Photo Library, Files, or from other Apps. Unfortunately, developers do not have the ability to issue refunds - please contact Apple if you would like to do that. ### 5/5 — Truly Amazing Software *2021-09-09* This app really is incredible. I’m blown away by how much power is packed into this app. Coming from a background using Spine Pro, it is intuitive to pick up and awesome to discover all the cool features packed in to this app. The automatic lip syncing and substitutions alone are well worth the ten bucks I paid for the app, not to mention the rest of all the awesome features. Hats off to the developer. Amazing stuff. Thank you for making this! ps. The only feature I would love to see added I’m the future would be IK handles for the arm and leg bones if possible. Amazing app! **Developer response:** Thank you for the positive feedback, I really do appreciate it! Lip-synching was quite a mathematical challenge so I’m really glad to hear that you like the results. I suspect that IK might be a quite an interesting mathematical challenge as well! ### 3/5 — Many features but you better plan ahead. *2021-09-08* If you add anything later, you won’t be able to go back through key frames and adjust on a timeline individually like you can in blender or core animator. Yes, you can tweak slides, but let’s say you add a character halfway through when you’ve already completed the sequence. Playing catch-up and adding that character means you’ll now have to go back through the slides and fix it. This animator is more like the onion skin type animators. Another example, I tried to add a zoom camera angle after I had completed the sequence, and it was near impossible for me to line it up perfectly because there was no frame of reference from side to slide. Otherwise, this app has everything you could want. Lip-synching, sound facts, characters, ET… **Developer response:** Please take a moment to explore the key-framing and clipboard features within Animation Pro (both are topics within the help). Whilst Animation Pro is specifically frame-by-frame animation, it does provide mechanisms to key the properties of figures, the items within figures, or the virtual camera, across multiple frames. When keying a figure, it is also possible to automatically add that figure into frames (where it doesn’t already exist) which can save a lot of time when adding figures after the frames have already been created. With regard to applying the same camera settings across multiple frames, the simplest solution will be to 1. Copy the virtual camera settings from the first frame into the Animation Pro clipboard 2. Paste those settings back to the rest of the frames (virtual camera settings can be pasted to multiple frames at once). I hope that helps. All the very best with your animations. ### 3/5 — Fiendishly difficult *2021-08-27* Lots of utilities but be ready to spend hours reading help files and revisiting them ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not compatible with Apple Pencil apparently *2023-01-28, version 2.3* Hey fellas, so I was wanting to get a more easy animating app than FlipaClip because I’m a YouTuber “GriffToons” who wants to make more videos in less time so I buy this app and learn all the stuff and I go in to make a figure and what do ya know I can’t draw anything, I try with my finger to see if that works and I does but I’m not gonna do any finger painting so if this is a bug then please fix it . ### 1/5 — DO NOT BUY *2022-06-17* This is horrible, it’s good if you wanna make a rigged a puppet, but if you want to do literally anything else, you’re out of luck. It also stops you music, if you like listening to music on the same Device you draw on, than you should find another app. Also it’s so 2010 vibes, it doesn’t seem like it’s up to date, at all. The Interface, is so bad, and no matter how hard you try, it’s lacking in so many ways. Just do NOT buy this. Literally try buying a lottery ticket instead, at least than you have a chance of winning the lottery. This app doesn’t do the job. **Developer response:** Animation Pro is a very large App with a learning curve that does require people to spend more than 5 minutes with it. Animation Pro’s main preferences, for example, do contain multiple audio options, including the ability to allow the audio from other Apps to continue in the background. As far as the 2010 interface goes, it was actually 2016. I guess that no matter what I do, I’m never going to make everyone happy and I’m sorry that it doesn’t meet your expectations. For anyone out there reading this response, please visit hotjamdonut.com.au and make up your own mind prior to purchase. All video tutorials and help material are freely available found there. ### 1/5 — utterly useless *2021-06-25, version 2.20* wont let me draw. keeps undoing any marks i make after the first few. wont let me import png images to use as parts of figures but will allow the importing of jpgs with the blank white backgrounds around the drawings. try to watch the instructional videos but frankly i think whoever made them was using some other software cause none of the buttons work reliably and when the do work they frequently do the opposite of what they claim to. i dont know why it is so difficult to find software that will let me do what i need, my requirements are stupidly simple. whatever. yet more time wastedtrying to exorcise these stupid cartoons destroying my mind i shall be dead before anything works. ### 1/5 — Overpriced and Underdeveloped *2016-08-21* This app is not user friendly, it is virtually impossible to do anything on it that looks any better than an animation developed in MS Paint. Save yourself the frustration and the money. **Developer response:** MS Paint? Just this week the Internet expressed their love for that product and petitioned for it to be retained! So that got me thinking about this review and yes, Animation Pro is a complex App that will have a large learning curve for some people. It was specifically developed in response to animators asking for more professional features to be added into StickMotion. I would thus encourage anyone reading this review to visit www.hotjamdonut.com.au prior to purchase. There you will find example animations produced in Animation Pro, all of Animation Pro's help files and video tutorials. ### 2/5 — Nope *2023-12-29* I really wanted to like this app, but there is so much about it that is not user friendly. I found the options for drawing to be difficult to use, and lacking. I gave up not too long after trying to work in this app. ### 2/5 — I’m really disappointed with this app *2020-07-02, version 2.02* I’ve been doing animation on procreate from my iPad and wanted something that can handle animation. But when I got this app the whole thing looked really outdated or like it hasn’t been update in years. The biggest problem is that there needs to be an option to use my Apple Pencil. Right now there isn’t even a brush tool or a way to draw anything complete waste of ten dollars ### 2/5 — User help *2020-04-08* I was very excited to try this animation app but have been very disappointed so far. For starters it seems all of your tutorials are done on a version different than the one that I have. Getting and navigating the ability to just draw layers is proven to hard. I’m putting in the time and am seeing no development. I can effectively use Procreate and I taught that to myself. This program has some videos that are marginally helpful. I hope this has nothing to do with me using the smaller iPad. Overall I would like some help if possible. I really want to draw layers over video clips. I got the video importing down, now animating, the thing this app is supposed to do, is proving to be too hard. I will continue to work with it and would change my review but so far I see no reason. I really wanted to like this app, and it’s especially difficult because the Procreate animation is not bad just limited. This app seems to have less limits on how you can animate, but no real intuitive design. ### 2/5 — Memory *2019-03-26, version 1.74* The app works fine for the in-house images, but shuts down as soon as I try to add my own images to animate. And yes, I’ve done everything that it says to in the tutorials/help. I just feel this app is such a let down. I was excited to use it, but now feel I’m just out some bucks for an app that doesn’t work. ### 2/5 — I really want to give this score higher *2019-01-02, version 1.74* This app seems like it has crazy potential but the interface isn’t user friendly and despite watching most video, it’s hard to get my imported character to animate. I am willing to give it another good because it’s the kind of program I can grow to love but right now, it isn’t as fun yet ### 2/5 — Big Miss *2018-09-09* I thought this looked like there was finally a real animation app for ipad. Despite the developer adding in a whole host of features the most basic feature is completely useless. Animation is time based. Without having complete control over a proper timeline there is no way you can animate. The frame system here is anti-animation. The tweening system is awful. You know that something is seriously wrong when there is page after page of help trying to explain how tweening works. It’s great to see a developer attempt something like this but they have gone down their own route, one which is alien to anybody that has used any other animation software. With out control of time how can you hope to animate? Animation on iPad should be a joy. This is tedious to the point of being useless as an animation tool and yet it has so many features that could make it great. It really needs a rethink and a rebuild from scratch **Developer response:** Animation Pro is a frame-by-frame cut-out-style animation App. This form of animation is closely related to stop-motion animation whereby you set up a scene, capture a frame, change the scene a little, capture a frame and repeat. In this scenario a frame-rate doesn’t really need to be set in stone until those captured frames are exported to a video. It is however, possible to see timing information by setting a frame rate in the options menu of the animation screen and by turning the ‘Display Times’ switch on. With regard to Tweening, Animation Pro will automatically create ‘in-between’ frames to help smooth out motion and other transitions. For the most part, animators may simply choose a number of tweens when exporting. But there are situations where automatic processes, such as this, may not achieve the desired results. So Animation Pro provides the ability to customise and override the behaviour of tweens. And yes, that did take me down a rabbit hole with regard to the documentation. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — An AMAZING app! *2024-05-23* This animation app single handedly saved my animated project! I was looking for an app that supported figures and rigging, however everywhere I looked was either much too expensive, or much too complicated. However when I discovered this gem of an app I was SO happy! It was everything I had ever needed in one app! And the amount of customisation for figures is quite good! Of course there are a few bits and bobs that could use a little improvement. For example while I was animating and left the app I re-entered the app to see that my camera had completely flipped to portrait when it was originally landscape and sadly, couldn't be reversed! Overall, LOVELY app! Would recommend to people who want to try rigging and animating figures! **Developer response:** Thank you for the great review, I really appreciate it. With regard to the camera, did you try adjusting its orientation via the ‘Options’ menu on the animation screen? Animation Pro will retain the camera orientation even if your iPad is inverted; otherwise, it would be impossible to take upside-down pictures :) ### 5/5 — Just incredible! *2023-07-02* I’ve made £300 so far making rap music videos with this app combined with LumaFusion . It’s hard to learn at first but once you get it it’s so easy . Qudos to the creator ### 5/5 — Fantastic *2023-01-27, version 2.3* This app blows every other iPad animation app,I’ve tried for iPad out of the water, easily. I was very surprised to see some other reviews where people said it was too complex and tutorials were inadequate. Despite having zero experience with animation software, I found it very easy to pick up and learn and found the tutorials extremely helpful. The features are rather simple, but with a little imagination, there’s all kinds of stuff you can do. I use procreate to draw the various parts of character models as well as backgrounds, then import these images into Animation Pro. I then create character models using the images exported from procreate , and then can move them about on the backgrounds I created and it uses tweening to fill in all the intermediary frames which is a lifesaver. I export the various video clips created in Animation Pro to Luma Fusion where I mix them into a well polished finished episode. I am very pleased with this app and have been using it for an animated series I’ve slowly but surely been creating with some colleagues. I am not quite sure why I don’t see it mentioned more often in discussions about animation apps for iPad, because it is the best I’ve tried, and I’ve tried most all of ‘em. ### 5/5 — Great support *2023-01-06* Like others have commented, this is a complex and powerful app. Lots of support via the built in help and the hotjam website. I have done lots of reading and viewing tutorial videos but hit a snag yesterday. I emailed the creators for help and got extremely prompt, detailed, helpful feedback that was almost perfect (but didn’t quite solve my problem). I told them, and recently another immediate email with an alternate solution that was spot on. Brilliant support! (Note, the issue wasn’t with the app but with how iOS handles files and file sharing when it comes to graphics and importing). I could not fault the developer’s commitment to supporting that wonderfully powerful app. ### 5/5 — Hidden gem! Awesome app *2023-01-04* This is just what I needed! For new animators, this has almost everything you need. And I only say almost, because I haven’t thinkers with it enough… but so thankful to the Developer for being so thoughtful about how you’ve put this together. Well thought out. Not sure why there are some negative reviews on this. I think just like in any application you need to give yourself a chance to learn all the possibilities. When you do, I’m sure it is quite rewarding. Great job on this app! I just love it!!! ### 5/5 — To the future people *2022-12-23, version 2.3* Yes I’m hoping to be rich then this is the website or app because using FlipaClip and this app you can easily make animations and a couple of hours terrifyingly fast contact start making fluffy start becoming a billionaire ### 5/5 — Best app of it’s type *2022-06-20, version 2.3* The animation pro app, is by and far the best app on the market for the type of animation it does, this app it quick, saves time when working on expansive projects, really well documented and easy to learn. Can’t recommend it enough! ### 5/5 — Amazing animation app *2022-05-02* It’s brilliant for 2d animation. I design the assets on seperate layers in affinity designer and add them one at a time into animation pro so they all line up perfectly. Then I animate each asset to create an incredibly smooth animation. The tweens are superb!!! ### 5/5 — The Very Best Apps *2022-04-16* In my opinion, this app developer, Stephen Keen, creates and offers the most professional, creative and coolest animation apps on iOS. I just love both of his programs. Thanks for all of the hard work and time no doubt put into both of these apps over the years, I appreciate it so much. I always look forward to new features and updates and I just cannot wait to see what new creative apps you create and sell next. Thanks a ton and God bless. **Developer response:** Thank you for the kind words and for giving Animation Pro 5 stars. More features are currently in development! ### 5/5 — Astonishingly Good *2022-02-28* This is a SENSATIONAL app that delivers hours of fun and creates great product. And at this price-point it is DOUBLE SENSATIONAL. The developers should take a bow - anyone who thinks this isn’t worth the price of a couple of fancy coffees is just crackers. Really pleased with this purchase and enjoying creating daft stuff with my kids. **Developer response:** Thank you for the great review, I really appreciate it! I produce Animation Pro as a hobby, so I don’t need to charge any more (or fill it with in-App purchases or subscriptions for that matter - I’ve never been a fan of that sort of thing). The current price tag, and reviews such as yours, are enough to keep it going :) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*