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.
I’ve personally always struggled with any type of animation, but this app is a great starter for learning rigging movements! I find that it’s great for making gifs and simple animations, thanks so much!
Developer Response
You have no idea how happy it makes me to read a review like this! It just gives me more motivation to keep going! Thank you so much!And if you notice anything not working properly, don't hesitate to send me a message! I'll be around. I’d really appreciate it if you mentioned the app in your posts, that would help a lot! Thank you again! : D
refreshing and simple and im excited for future developments
meeeeeeeoooooowwww
really nice and clean ui so far so good running and really well on my ipad. but a few notes i have after checking out all the features and trying to get something done: clipboard kind of doesn't work, it's cropping my image for me and i don't know if it's just auto cropping from the aspect ratio of the video but that's worth noting. but i love that feature it makes it so much easier to just go from a bunch of layers i have and not have to export every single one of them.also the auto mask is a great tool but it just auto masks and removes and doesn't give any parameters or cues on what exactly it's masking. it would be useful to either be able to add or delete sections and also see the mask before executing it. i think so far the masking is working best for single drawings that were exported from an app and have really clean lines and a solid shape, but if you're someone who's editing comic strips or images, that's where the masking was falling off. also another thing about images - i think basic transform controls would be really helpful ie. cropping, x/y/z custom scaling/skew. overall impressions though: i've been kind of losing my mind trying to find an app or software exactly like this and it's simple and does exactly what i'm trying to do and the interface doesn't overwhelm you with things it just gets straight to the project and i can't believe the state of software and apps right now that are bloated and packed with confusing things and unnecessary features and they don't even work well. this is extremely refreshing. so i have really high hopes for the development of this - really doesn't need a heap more or complicated features - just the basic things that'll get a good workflow going for different types of projects. excited to see what's ahead.
Developer Response
Thank you so much for this. Reviews like yours are the reason I keep building. You clearly went through every feature and came back with notes that are specific and genuinely useful, which is rare. The clipboard cropping, the mask controls and the transform tools are all noted, and I'll do my best to get to them. And yes, keeping it clean is the goal. That's the whole idea behind PuppetPad and I have no intention of turning it into another bloated toolbox. But I do want to make it a genuinely great animation app, so expect maximum effort on the things that actually improve the workflow.
PuppetPad 1.9 is here, and your puppets tell a story, scene by scene.
STORYBOARD
Turn your layers or groups into scenes. Select them, make a storyboard, and it becomes a block on its own line of the timeline, like a clip in a video editor. Drag the blocks to put the scenes in order. Pull either end of a block to stretch or squeeze the scene: everything inside follows in proportion, so a 2 second animation pulled to 3 seconds plays slower instead of being cut. There is also a speed slider from 0.25x to 4x, Reverse and Duplicate. Layers you leave out, like the background, stay in every scene. Play loops the scene you picked, or runs all your scenes one after the other, and Export joins one or several storyboards in a single file, with the sound cut along.
TIMELINE MARKERS
Tap the thin strip above the ruler to drop an orange marker, tap it to send the playhead there, drag it to move it or off the strip to delete it. They are only guides and change nothing in your animation. With Snap on, the playhead, your keyframes and the storyboard blocks stick to them.
WHATSAPP STICKERS
Making animated stickers has a much better flow now. Each sticker goes into a gallery in the new Stickers tab, and when a gallery reaches three you send the whole pack to WhatsApp right from the Export window, all animated.
ALSO IN THIS VERSION
A stop button next to Play goes back to the start and deselects everything. Storyboards fold away with an arrow, like groups. A layer follows the folder it joins.
Maximum effort!
Version 1.9
The developer, Leonardo Amora, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
User Content
Identifiers
Other Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Leonardo Amora
Size
18.4 MB
Category
Graphics & Design
Compatibility
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages
English
Age Rating
13+
13+
This app is rated 13+ with content restrictions.
Some content may be rated higher, and may therefore be restricted and managed by the developer through in-app controls.