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Description
Animate by hand on iPad. Time it. Score it. Ship it. Light Animator is a complete animation studio — drawing, cel-hold timing, keyframes, multitrack audio, and export, all in one app.
Whether you're sketching your first walk cycle, finishing a music video, or animating a short film, Light Animator takes you from first stroke to final cut without leaving the canvas.
DRAW
Vector and raster brushes side by side. Vector strokes stay editable forever — adjust width, color, or shape long after you've laid them down. Raster brushes carry real Pencil dynamics: tilt, pressure, and barrel-roll all change how the brush feels. Ten hand-tuned starter brushes including Wet Acrylic, Inker, Pencil, Rough Charcoal, and Marker. Save your own brush profiles, build custom shape libraries, and pin reusable color palettes that follow you between projects.
TIME
A real timeline, not a stack of stickies. Hold a drawing for any number of frames — Light Animator's cel-hold system lets you time animation on twos, threes, fours, or any custom rhythm an animator actually uses. Keyframe position, rotation, scale, and stretch on any object. Smooth tweens between keyframes, onion skins that adapt to your hold, motion paths you can drag, and a hold-picker that shows exactly how long each cel sits on screen.
COMPOSE
Multi-layer compositing with blend modes, group folders, and per-layer opacity. Reusable symbols for cycles you don't want to redraw frame by frame. A Director view to sequence multiple scenes into one continuous film. Canvas sizes from Instagram square to 4K, with presets for the formats you actually share.
SOUND
A multitrack audio studio built into the timeline. Import music, podcasts, or sound effects — or record straight from the iPad mic. Trim, split, fade, and EQ each clip independently. Lay video underneath your animation as a rotoscoping reference. Export with sound baked in, or as transparent footage ready for any compositor.
EXPORT
H.264 MP4, HEVC-with-alpha MOV, animated GIF, or numbered PNG sequence inside a zip. Frame-rate options for 12, 24, or 30 fps. JPEG quality control. Transparent backgrounds when you need them. Every export is sized to the canvas you set up — no recropping, no surprises.
DESIGNED FOR REAL WORK
Two-finger tap to undo. Three-finger tap to redo. Spacebar plays. Arrow keys step. K sets a keyframe. Shift-tap extends a selection. Long-press a frame to set its hold. Customizable undo depth, customizable workspace, light and dark themes that adapt to your room. Light Animator gets quieter the longer you use it.
iPad-only. Optimized for Apple Pencil. Built with Metal for full-resolution canvases up to 4K.
Make something this week.
What's New in Version 1.1.0
This update brings a brand-new Projects library, audio in your video exports, an in-app help system, and a long list of polish fixes across the editor.
NEW
- Projects library — tap "Projects…" in the file menu for a thumbnail-first view of every saved project. Search, sort, rename, duplicate, or delete from one screen. Save your current work as a copy, or save anywhere on your iPad or iCloud Drive via the Files app.
- In-app Help — a question-mark button next to Settings opens a complete, searchable help system. Tools, timeline, exposure, holds, onion skinning, keyframes, symbols, audio, and keyboard shortcuts — all explained in plain English.
- Audio in video exports — MP4 and MOV exports now include your full audio mix. Tracks, gain, pan, mute / solo, EQ, fades, and clip-level edits all preserved in the exported file.
- Smart Quit — a new entry at the bottom of the file menu offers to save your work before leaving the app.
- Onion skin on by default — new projects launch with onion skinning enabled, so the headline animation feature shows up from the very first frame you draw.
IMPROVEMENTS
- New Project now auto-fits the artboard to your screen instead of opening at native pixel size — no more double-tap-to-recover.
- Picking a canvas preset like 4K also re-fits on Apply, so a new size lands centered the moment you tap it.
- Arrow keys now always step the playhead by at least one frame, even when you've scrubbed past your last drawing — never a silent no-op.
- Export filenames stay clean — no more "-muxed" suffix when audio is added to your video.
FIXES
- The Record (Perform) tool now stops cleanly at the end of the timeline when an audio track is loaded, instead of looping back and over-stamping the earlier frames you just authored.
- Long sessions stay stable — multiple memory leaks resolved, multi-scene exports no longer climb past the iPad's memory budget.
- Audio recording stops cleanly when phone calls or Siri interrupt.
- Deleted images immediately release GPU memory.
- Group rotate, scale, and stretch gestures are now defensive against in-flight transient previews.
- Many smaller stability fixes from a comprehensive pre-release audit.
Thanks for using Light Animator. If you hit anything, the new Help system covers most questions — or write to calartschris@gmail.com.
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
1.1.0
Size
5.9 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 17.0 or later
Devices
iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air11M4, iPad Air11M4Cellular, iPad Air13M4, iPad Air13M4Cellular
Languages
English
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