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How To Blur In Procreate – Gaussian, Motion & Positional

How to procreate blur
Published 13 February 2022

Last updated on 7 April 2022

I’ll be showing you how to add three different types of blur in Procreate with this quick and simple tutorial.

Despite only being released in 2011, Procreate has gained the same amount of praise as other industry-standard programs such as Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, and more.

Procreate is one of the most successful and accessible digital art programs out there, gaining popularity in late 2016, early 2017.

Available Procreate blurs

  • Motion – Motion gives the effect of the image moving in motion hence the name ‘motion’ with streaking lines.
  • Gaussian – Completely blends out the image and adds a haze effect.
  • Perspective – Blur effect only comes from one chosen direction.

How to add Motion Blur in Procreate

You want to start by making sure you’re on the right layer, you can check this by accessing the layers (two square boxes) in the top right. Next, navigate your way to the top left ‘Magic Wand’ symbol. Tap this once and an adjustment layer should appear, scroll down and tap Motion Blur.

Please read my detailed guide below for a better step-by-step process.

Video tutorial

Scroll down for a written guide.

1. Start by choosing the right layer

Before you start, make sure you have selected the layer you want to add a motion blur effect to. You can do this by accessing the layer section (two square boxes) on the top right of your screen.

Layers menu in procreate

2. Locate the magic wand tool

Once you’re on the right layer, navigate your way to the top left and tap on the magic wand tool and select ‘Motion Blur’. Once selected, the menu will disappear. 

Magic wand - adjustments menu highlighting motion blur

3. Finally, use the slide bar to add haze effect

To add and decrease motion blur, you slide your pen across the screen until you achieve the desired blur. Do this as much as you like until it fits your needs.

Procreate canvas highlighting motion blur adjust scale

How to add Gaussian Blur in Procreate 

Make sure you’re on the right layer by accessing the layers (two square boxes) in the top right. When the previous step is completed navigate your way to the top left ‘Magic Wand’ symbol. Tap this once and an adjustment layer should appear, scroll down and tap Gaussian blur.

1. Start by choosing the right layer & navigate your way to the Magic Wand tool

To start, you want to make sure you’re on the layer – you can do this by accessing the layers menu in the top right. After you’ve chosen the right layer, you want to tap the ‘Magic Wand’ icon that can be found in the top left and select ‘Gaussian Blur’.

Magic wand menu highlighting gaussian blur

2. Adjust blur intensity

You can increase and decrease the intensity of the blur by sliding from left to right.

Gaussian blur slide adjuster highlighted

How to add Perspective Blur in Procreate

Make sure you’re on the right layer by accessing the layers (two square boxes) in the top right. When the previous step is completed you need to navigate your way to the top left ‘Magic Wand’ symbol. Tap this once and an adjustments layer should appear, scroll down and tap Perspective blur.

1. Start by checking you’re on the layer you want to adjust – Find the Magic Wand tool

Before you start adding effects you want to make sure you have selected the layer you want to adjust. You can access the layer options (2 square boxes) in the top right to change the layer.

When all set you want to navigate your way to the top left, tap on the magic wand tool, and select perspective blur. 

After being selected you’ll be given the option to move an opaque circle around the canvas. This will impact where the image blurs from.

Perspective blur procreate

2. Adjust blur intensity

Once the circle has been placed in an ideal place you can adjust the blur intensity by sliding up and down the scale.

Perspective blur action

3. Add directional haze

If this isn’t the blur you’re looking for you will notice at the bottom of the screen it has a ‘Positional/Directional’ option. The only difference is this time on the circle there’s an arrow to point in the direction you’d like.

The same sliding settings still apply.

Positional directional

Different blur outcome comparisons

Motion blur procreate
Motion
Gaussian blur procreate
Gaussian
Positional blur procreate
Positional

Why blur is useful

In my personal experience, applying these different effects in Procreate on my art has always without fail, resulted in me having a better outcome. Whether that would be me not using haze because of trial and error or utilising the effect to create the perfect piece.

It never hurts experimenting with blurring your art, so give it a try!

Visit my other Procreate tutorials to learn more.

About Author

I'm an expert designer/animator using Procreate.