Animator Plus vs Tracing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Animator Plus
Create professional-quality animations with a powerful yet intuitive drawing and animation tool. Offers extensive features for drawing, frame management, and exporting your creations in various formats.
- Keyframe animation
- Timeline editing
- Drawing tools
- Unlimited layers and frames
- Export to MP4 and PNG
- Onion skinning
- Customizable brushes
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Animator Plus is a powerful drawing and frame-by-frame animation studio built natively for iPad and iPhone. Sketch, paint, and bring stories to life on a buttery-smooth Metal-powered canvas — with pro brushes, a full animation timeline, layers, sound sync, and one-tap export to MP4, image sequences, PNG, or JPG. Whether you are a hobbyist doodler, a storyboard artist, a cartoonist, or an animator chasing that classic hand-drawn look, Animator Plus puts everything you need into one focused, beautifully refined workspace. PRO BRUSHES TUNED FOR APPLE PENCIL • Studio Pen — crisp ink lines with subtle pressure response • Pencil — true graphite feel with tilt-based shading • Pressure Pen — thickness scales with how hard you press • Marker — flat, opaque coverage for blocking color • Fountain — calligraphic chisel for elegant strokes • Airbrush — soft sprays that build up gradually • Tapered Line — four variants for classic animation strokes • Eraser, Smart Fill Bucket, Lasso Select Full Apple Pencil pressure, tilt, and azimuth support. Adjust per-brush size, opacity, hardness, flow, and smoothing. • CLASSIC FRAME-BY-FRAME ANIMATION Flip on Animation Mode to unlock a full timeline. Insert, duplicate, copy, paste, and reorder frames in a tap. Set Frame Hold to pause specific frames for any number of ticks. Tune playback from 1 to 60 fps. Onion-skin previous and next frames as ghosts to align inbetweens with confidence. • STROKE-BY-STROKE PLAYBACK Watch your artwork redraw itself, one stroke at a time, at 1x, 2x, or 4x speed. Perfect for time-lapse reels, tutorials, and process videos. Undone strokes are skipped automatically. • POWERFUL LAYERS Stack, rename, hide, lock, blend, and clip layers independently. Every animation frame keeps its own layer stack so foreground action and static backgrounds stay perfectly organized. • SHAPES, TEXT, AND TRANSFORMS Drop perfect lines, rectangles, ellipses, triangles, stars, and hexagons. Add editable text overlays. Use Lasso Select to grab strokes and move, rotate, scale, or recolor entire sections in one gesture. • REFERENCE TOOLS AND ROTOSCOPING Turn on square, dot, or isometric grids for precise layouts. Import a reference image from Photos and dim its opacity to trace or sample. Import a video clip and Animator Plus extracts the frames automatically, letting you rotoscope on top. • SOUND ON THE TIMELINE Import an audio clip, trim the in and out points, and adjust volume. Sound plays back in lockstep with your animation so timing and lip-sync land first try. • EXPORT EVERYWHERE Save your art as transparent PNG, JPG, image sequence, or MP4 video. Push files to the Files app or straight to your camera roll. Projects sync across devices via iCloud Drive. • REFINED FOR EVERY DEVICE Layouts adapt automatically between iPad and iPhone. Customize the accent color, brush smoothing, background color, and grid style from one tidy Settings panel. Whether you are sketching a storyboard, illustrating a children's book, prototyping a cartoon, or producing a finished animated short, Animator Plus gives you the tools to draw, paint, animate, and ship — frame by frame. Thanks for your support. Visit nitrio.com for more apps for your iOS devices.
Tracing
Easily trace photos and images to create your own hand-drawn art. This tool is designed for beginners to practice drawing skills without needing professional art training. Import images, adjust their position and transparency, and use a simple two-layer system for a clean drawing process.
- Import and trace photos
- Move, rotate, and scale reference images
- Adjustable image opacity
- Two-layer system for drawing and coloring
- Beginner-focused drawing practice
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Trace is a simple drawing app that lets you import photos, images, and files as references, then trace and paint over them. One of Trace’s key features is its three-layer structure: the Reference Layer, Trace Layer, and Paint Layer. You can trace outlines while viewing your reference image, then add color on the Paint Layer to complete your artwork. By separating each step into its own layer, Trace makes the drawing process simple and easy to manage. The Reference Layer supports zooming, scaling, and rotation, giving you the freedom to adjust the size and angle of your reference image to match your composition. In addition to importing images from your photo library, Trace also supports importing image files, allowing you to use a wide variety of reference materials. Key Features * Reference Layer Display a photo or image as your drawing reference. Zoom, resize, and rotate it freely to match the size and angle you want. * Trace Layer Trace outlines and shapes while viewing the reference image underneath. * Paint Layer Add color while using your traced lines as a guide to complete your artwork. * Import from Photos Use images stored in your photo library as references. * Import from Files Import image files in addition to photos, giving you more flexibility when choosing reference materials. * Flexible Reference Adjustment Freely adjust the size and angle of your reference image to suit your composition and tracing needs. * Simple and Intuitive Controls Designed to keep unnecessary complexity to a minimum so you can focus on tracing, drawing, and painting. Trace can be used for drawing practice, illustration, sketching, design studies, and many other creative purposes. “Place your reference.” “Trace the lines.” “Add color.” By separating these three steps into layers, Trace provides a smooth and intuitive workflow from tracing to painting. Turn your favorite photos and images into your own artwork with Trace.
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Tracing at 100% against Animator Plus's 0%. Tracing also leads on price ($0.99 vs $8.99) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 23 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Animator Plus costs $8.99 and Tracing $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Animator Plus ships an update every 23 months, Tracing every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and August 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Animator Plus | Tracing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 23 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Heng Jia Liang | Yasuo Fukushima |
Customer experience
Animator Plus
Tracing
In-app purchases
Animator Plus
No in-app purchases
Tracing
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Animator Plus free?
Is Tracing free?
Do Animator Plus or Tracing have ads?
Which is updated more often, Animator Plus or Tracing?
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