# PuppetPad > PuppetPad (iPhone/iPad app by Leonardo Amora.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/puppetpad/id6771376910 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Leonardo Amora](https://appshunter.io/developer/690988469) - Category: Graphics & Design, Developer Tools - Price: Free with in-app purchases (on sale, was $4.99) - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 7 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-05-21 - Data updated: 2026-08-11 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/puppetpad/id6771376910/reviews.md ## What is PuppetPad? Behind a toy, a powerful animation tool. You stare at one of your drawings and think "I wish this thing would actually move." PuppetPad makes that happen. Plus a few uses you haven't thought of yet. Grab an image. A doodle from Procreate, a photo of your dog, your boss mid yawn, a regrettable selfie. The app opens it, builds an invisible mesh around the figure, and hands you pins. Drag a pin and the figure moves with it. Drag again and it becomes animation. That is the entire workflow. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN ANIMATOR PuppetPad was made for: . People who want memes more elaborate than Photoshop copy and paste . Parents who want their kid's drawing to actually walk . Graphic designers blocked on what to do with their right hand . Anyone who wants to animate someone's profile picture without their consent . Anyone who wants to animate someone's profile picture WITH their consent . Beginning animators who find Live2D and Spine intimidating (rightfully so) . Pro animators who just want a quick iPad rough . You, who opened the App Store out of boredom HOW IT WORKS 1. Import a PNG. The contour mesh is generated automatically. You won't see it. It just works. 2. Tap anywhere to place a pin. Pins are joints. 3. Drag pins to animate. Every move becomes a keyframe by itself. 4. Hit play. 5. Export as GIF. Send to the family group chat. THINGS PEOPLE END UP MAKING . Characters waving arms like they actually exist . Cat photos performing snake dances . Company logos pulsing like an anxious heart . Kid drawings waving goodbye to grandma over FaceTime . Caricatures of questionable taste . Story vignettes . That one meme that needed that one detail to move . Loading animations for your own app project . Character rough drafts before doing the polished work elsewhere WHAT'S INSIDE THE TOY Underneath the playful surface, PuppetPad runs a real animation engine. Alpha aware mesh generation, an ARAP solver for natural deformation, keyframed timeline, multi pin selection, bone rigs with inverse kinematics, mesh density control, undo and redo via multi finger taps. You don't need to know what any of that means to use the app. But the engineer in you might appreciate that it's there. FEATURES . Apple Pencil supported (works with fingers too, if that's how you live) . iPad landscape, full screen, zero clutter . Works offline . No login, no signup, no newsletter . No ads. Ever. . GIF export . Undo and redo (you will need them) PRICE One time purchase. Pay once, it's yours. No monthly subscription, no "pro version" upsell, no paywall popping up when you try to do something useful. Forever yours, the way software used to be. WORK IN PROGRESS PuppetPad is built by one person in the hours that life leaves over. Every bug report and every suggestion turns into a real improvement in a future version. If you want to request a feature, complain about something, send fan art of the app, or just say you liked it: leonardoamoraleite@gmail.com Human reply, in whatever language you write to me in, from the same person who wrote this text. XD Thanks for considering the app. Now go animate something absurd. ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | 3 Export Tokens | $0.99 | one-time | | 10 Export Tokens | $1.99 | one-time | | 25 Export Tokens | $2.99 | one-time | | unlimited Exports | $9.99 | one-time | ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.5.2 — 2026-08-10 Version codename: Prismalogic - ITA ;) No background at all. GIF and video now have a Transparent background switch in the export sheet, next to the PNG sequence and sticker that always carried alpha. Transparent video comes out as a .mov with a real alpha channel, ready to drop straight into any editor. Puppetize settings. A new button in the timeline header lets you pick the mesh density and how small a piece of art has to be before it counts as noise. Eyes, mouths and other tiny parts stop disappearing when you import. Repuppetize rebuilds the mesh of a layer you already made, keeping its pins and poses. Moving layers, fixed. Hold anywhere on a layer row and it lifts with an orange highlight, ready to go. Drag to see exactly where it will land, and when you reach the edge of the list it scrolls on its own, the way Photoshop does. The pivot stays put. Drop the crosshair on a shoulder or a hip and it holds there while you pose. Pulling a pin no longer drags it along, and the mesh now turns around the pivot instead of sliding underneath it. Real arcs, every time. Controls always on top. Cage, pivot, pins and bones are drawn above the artwork, so a layer sitting on top of the selected one can't hide them anymore. The pivot crosshair stays visible in every tool, not just its own. Touch a control, get the tool. Tap or drag a pin and the app switches to select and moves it in the same gesture. Tap the crosshair and the pivot tool is ready. No trip back to the toolbar. Loop your video export. Video has no native loop, so now you choose how many times the animation is recorded into the file. A 2 second loop becomes 4 seconds at 2x, 6 seconds at 3x, up to 20 times. Keyboard and mouse. V/P/B/Y for the tools, space to play, arrows for frames and keyframes, K to key, R to reset the pose, plus the usual Cmd shortcuts. The wheel scrolls the canvas and the timeline, Cmd+wheel zooms and Option+drag pans. Works on iPad with a mouse or Universal Control. Fixes. The first frame of an export is no longer mangled. Tap a layer name to rename it on the spot. The layer list scrolls again. With stacked layers, a new pin lands on the layer you selected instead of the top one. The number pad opens with the value selected, so the first digit replaces it, and closing it without confirming keeps the old value. Maximum effort! ### 1.5 — 2026-07-28 PuppetPad 1.5 is here, and it brings what you've been asking for. Rotation pivot. Grab the pivot tool and drop the crosshair on a shoulder, a hip, a joint, and the figure finally turns from where it should. The pivot is welded to the artwork, so it follows the pins, the deformation and the whole animation. Real arcs, real weight. Blend modes and opacity. Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Lighten and Add, plus an opacity slider on every layer. Layered PSDs now bring their blend modes in with them instead of dropping them at the door. Multi layer select. Swipe right across the layer list to gather layers as your finger crosses them, then apply a blend mode or delete them all at once. The three lines button on each row opens rename, duplicate and delete. Pencil hints. Hover the Apple Pencil over any button in the toolbar or the timeline and a bubble tells you what it does. Off by default, turn it on in Settings. Faster, lighter, sharper. PSD import runs a single redraw pass now: quicker, half the memory, sharper artwork, and the app stays responsive while it works. Onion skin stopped costing frames. Maximum effort! ### 1.4 — 2026-07-08 PuppetPad 1.4. Bring your whole character to life, faster. Import anything, instantly. Start a project straight from the Projects screen with a PSD, a PNG, or whatever's on your clipboard. The canvas is sized to your art automatically. Layered PSDs come in with every layer as its own puppet, right where you drew it. You can also drop a layered PSD into any open project. Animate smarter. • Onion skin. See your neighboring keyframes as translucent ghosts (red for previous, green for next) and nail every in-between. • Repeat a section. Loop a range of keyframes as a Cycle or a Ping-Pong, dial in the count with a slider or keypad, and let PuppetPad extend the timeline for you when you need more room. Perfect for walk cycles and idles. • Move pin groups. Select multiple pins and drag inside their cage to move them all at once, with a keyframe captured automatically. A cleaner, sharper workspace. Your canvas now opens perfectly framed every time, the stage size is always in view, and pins stay crisp and tappable at any resolution, even on huge artwork. Undo that has your back. Background removal, pin selections, and stage changes are all fully undoable now. Rock solid and easy on your battery. Smoother, steadier deformation, a pile of fixes across selection, editing, and the timeline, and a canvas that quietly rests when you step away, so your iPad stays cool and lasts longer. ### 1.3 — 2026-06-01 PuppetPad 1.3 is here — and it brings what you've been asking for. 1 - Real alpha export. Export your animations as PNG or ProRes 4444 with a fully transparent background, ready to drop into any video editor. No workarounds, no white fringe bleeding through. 2 - Depth per pin. Every pin now has a Z value — giving you full control over which part of your puppet renders on top. Arm over body, hand over arm. Exactly how it should've always worked. 3 - Copy & paste on the timeline. Found a frame you love? Paste it anywhere in your animation. That simple. 4 - And Pro Mode! Now you can generate keyframe for each pin. Like a pro! And of course a lot of fix and improvements! Creating an animation has never been easier! ### 1.2 — 2026-05-29 PuppetPad is free now — and nobody loses. What's new in 1.2: • Free to download with 3 export tokens to get you started • Token packs from $0.99, or unlock Unlimited Exports for $9.99 (one-time, forever) • Bought the paid version? Unlimited Exports is automatically yours. Thank you for the trust. • Cleaner overlays panel: wireframe, pins and IK now toggle independently behind a single eye button • Smoother polish across the editor Animate. Export. Share. ## More apps by Leonardo Amora - [Monsters vs Robots](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/monsters-vs-robots/id690988386) - [The Flight Test](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-flight-test/id820289681) - [Eternal Fighter](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/eternal-fighter/id1072176629) - [Unstable!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/unstable/id1282444122) - [Meteor Storm!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/meteor-storm/id1350427955) - [Elastic Jump!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/elastic-jump/id1375709732) All apps by Leonardo Amora: https://appshunter.io/developer/690988469 --- *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 2026-08-11.*