Procreate Time Lapse: Export the Full Video in 4 Taps

TL;DR: To export a Procreate time lapse, tap Actions, then Video, then Export time-lapse video, and choose Full length. Procreate records one by default, so if yours is missing, recording was paused, purged, or switched off in iPad Settings.

Drawing on a Mac or PC too? Get a link a client can check: 3 free certificates a month at drawdog.art/download.

Procreate records a time lapse of your drawing on its own, so you do not need to switch anything on. To get the video, tap Actions, then Video, then Export time-lapse video, and pick Full length or 30 Seconds.

The timelapse is the best free record an iPad illustrator has, and it is also the one people trust more than they should. Procreate records every stroke on the canvas from the moment you create it, quietly, in the background, and exports a video of the whole thing in about the time it takes to make coffee. Clients love it. Art directors forward it to the brand team and the brand team says "oh, cool" and the question goes away. That is a real outcome and you should keep using it.

But if you have ever sat with the question of what the recording really demonstrates, you already know it is less than it looks. This is the honest version, so that when someone who has thought about it pushes back, you are not caught out.

How to turn on Procreate time lapse

You do not have to. Procreate and Procreate Pocket record a time lapse on every canvas by default. Each action you make becomes a frame of the video. Undo is the one thing that is left out.

To check it is on, tap Actions, then Video. Look for the Time-lapse Recording switch. If it is on, you are recording.

To watch it, tap Actions, then Video, then Time-lapse Replay. It plays at 30 frames per second. A counter in the top right shows the run time. Drag left or right on the canvas to scrub.

You can pause recording from the same Video screen. Procreate asks if you want to purge what it has. Tap Don't Purge to keep it and carry on later. Know that a paused stretch is missing from the video, so a viewer is watching an edited recording.

Procreate Dreams does not have time lapse recording.

How to export it (full length vs 30 seconds)

Open your artwork.
Tap Actions, then Video.
Tap Export time-lapse video.
Choose Full length or 30 Seconds.
Save or send it to any app or service connected to the Files app on your iPad.

Full length exports your whole process as a fast video. How long it runs depends on how long you worked. The file can be big.

30 Seconds trims it to half a minute. Procreate picks the frames it thinks matter most, and it tends to keep more detail from early in the drawing. The file is small and easy to post.

Which one should you send a client? Full length. The short one is made for sharing online. The long one lets them see all of the work.

Video quality and resolution: set it before you draw

When you make a custom canvas, you can pick a video resolution from 1080p up to 4K and a quality from Low (small files) to Lossless (large files). HEVC compression is off unless you turn it on. These choices are locked in once you start drawing, so decide first. The full walk-through is in Procreate time lapse settings: set these before you draw.

Why your time lapse is missing or blank

Here are the causes Procreate documents, and how to check each one.

Recording was switched off on that canvas. Tap Actions, then Video, and look at the Time-lapse Recording switch.
Recording is switched off for the whole app. In your iPad's Settings, open Procreate and look for Disable Time-lapse. When it is on, Procreate stops recording on all artworks. Recordings you already have are kept.
You were using Procreate Dreams. It has no time lapse recording.
You paused it and tapped Purge. Purging clears the video data it had stored.

To see what a canvas has, tap Actions, then Canvas, then Canvas information. It lists the video length, quality, resolution, file size and codec. If the length is tiny, the recording was off for most of the work.

Sadly, you cannot add a time lapse to work after the fact. Procreate only records while recording is on. So check the switch before you start the next piece. Full list of causes and fixes: Procreate time lapse not recording? 5 causes and fixes.

Is a time lapse proof you made it?

It helps. It is not proof on its own, and a careful client knows that.

What it does well: it shows the order you worked in. A face gets blocked in, drawn wrong, fixed. That is a real record of decisions, and it is hard to get from a finished image alone.

What it cannot do:

It only shows what happened inside Procreate. It says nothing about what you were looking at on another screen.
It can be paused and cut. Procreate's own handbook says pausing lets you edit out parts of your process.
The 30 second version is trimmed by design.
It lives on your iPad. A client has to take your word that you did not change it.

So a time lapse can be edited, and it can be faked. That does not make it useless. It makes it one piece of a record.

DrawDog is a different kind of record. It runs on a Mac or Windows PC while you work, records the session, and gives your client one link to check. It never opens your files. It is not an AI detector, and it can't catch someone who copies work by hand. It is just a record of how your own work came together, made by a third party the client can check without taking your word.

One thing to know: DrawDog does not run on an iPad. If you draw only in Procreate, keep the time lapse on, send the full length version, and keep your layered file. If you also work on a Mac or PC, DrawDog gives you a link on top of it. Three certificates a month are free.

What the recording actually contains

Procreate does not film your screen. It re-renders your strokes. Each brush dab, each layer change, each transform is stored as an action, and the timelapse plays those actions back at high speed onto a fresh canvas. That is why the export is so smooth and why it never shows your palette, your reference window, or your finger hovering while you think.

Three things follow from that, and each one matters for proof.

It shows order. Blocking in the silhouette, then the big shapes, then the eyes, then two hours on the hands. A person watching it sees a decision process, and a decision process is what a generated image conspicuously lacks. This is the strong part of the record, and it is stronger than most people realise. Nobody generating an image and pasting it in produces a recording where a face gets drawn wrong and fixed.

It shows time only indirectly. The 30 Seconds export is always half a minute. The full length export runs as long as your recording. The app knows the real duration, and you can find it under the canvas information panel, but a short export will not tell a viewer whether the piece took four hours or forty minutes. If duration is the argument you want to make, screenshot that panel and send it alongside.

It shows nothing about what was on your other screen, or in the reference layer you turned off before exporting. Which brings us to the ways it fails.

The three ways a timelapse stops being proof

The first is tracing. Drop a generated image on a layer, drop the opacity to twenty percent, draw over it, delete the layer at the end. The timelapse will show a confident, well-proportioned drawing appearing stroke by stroke with no visible reference. To a viewer it looks like remarkable skill. Procreate does not show hidden or deleted layers in playback, as far as we can tell.

The second is the imported image itself. If you import a photo or a generated base into a layer, the timelapse shows it appearing all at once, as a single frame. An attentive viewer will spot that. A tired art director scrubbing on their phone will not, especially if the import happens early and gets painted over quickly. This one is at least visible in principle, which is why people who fake process usually use the first method instead.

The third is the most mundane and the most common: the timelapse gets turned off, or was never on. Procreate lets you switch recording off, on one canvas or for the whole app, and plenty of working illustrators find out after a client asks that half their portfolio has no recording at all. There is nothing sinister about that. It just means the record does not exist for the pieces where you most wish it did.

None of this makes the timelapse worthless. It makes it one kind of record with a known shape, which is exactly how a careful client will treat it. Send it as the thing it is: a view of your decisions, not a certificate.

How to send it so it lands

Export at the app's full length setting rather than the thirty-second version. The short one looks like a social clip and reads as marketing. The long one is boring, and boring is what you want; a client who scrubs through eight minutes of you fixing a jawline is a client who stops wondering.

Pair it with two things that cover its blind spots. First, a screenshot of the canvas info panel, which lists the recorded drawing time and the number of strokes, because those numbers answer the duration question the video cannot. Second, the layered source file, because a viewer who can toggle layers can see for themselves that nothing was traced. If the file is too large to email, a shared folder link with the date visible does the same job.

Then write one plain sentence in the delivery email. "Attached is the recording Procreate makes as you draw, plus the working file." Do not explain what a timelapse is. Do not say it proves anything. The moment you argue for it, it starts to look like it needs arguing for.

When a timelapse is not enough

Side by side: Time lapse vs process certificate.

Some clients, particularly agencies that have been burned, now ask for more than an app-generated recording, and they are not wrong to. The recording lives on your device, it can be edited before export, and its timestamps are whatever your iPad's clock says. For a portfolio piece that is fine. For a contract with a "no generative AI" clause and real money attached, an independent record is worth having.

That is the gap DrawDog fills. It records the session while you work on your Mac or PC and issues a signed, timestamped certificate a client can check without trusting you or us. It never opens your files. It does not replace the timelapse. It is the thing you send next to it when the timelapse alone is not going to close the question. The method page explains exactly what it records and what it cannot catch, including the tracing problem above, which DrawDog does not catch either.

DrawDog records the session itself and gives the client one link to check, without opening your files.

Procreate work is on an iPad, though, and the DrawDog desktop app runs on a Mac or a PC. For iPad work you can seal your .procreate file in the browser, with nothing to install. It makes a "Sealed record" that cannot catch tracing over an imported image or edits made before you sealed. For iPad-only illustrators the honest advice is still the boring one: keep recording on for every canvas, screenshot the info panel when you finish, keep your layered files, and send all three before anyone asks. That habit, done every time, does more for your reputation than any single record ever will. How to prove to a client you made the work goes through the rest of the kit.

Procreate time lapse questions

Is Procreate time lapse on by default?

Yes. Procreate and Procreate Pocket record every action you make as a frame of the video, except undo. You do not have to turn anything on.

How do I export a Procreate time lapse?

Tap Actions, then Video, then Export time-lapse video. Choose Full length or 30 Seconds, then save or send the file.

What is the difference between full length and 30 seconds?

Full length is your whole process as a fast video, and its length depends on how long you worked. 30 Seconds is a short version that keeps the frames Procreate thinks matter most.

Why is my Procreate time lapse missing?

Recording may be switched off on that canvas, or switched off for the whole app with Disable Time-lapse in your iPad Settings. Procreate Dreams has no time lapse. Check Actions, then Video, and Actions, then Canvas, then Canvas information.

Is a Procreate time lapse proof I made my art?

It helps, because it shows the order you worked in. But recording can be paused and cut, and a time lapse can be faked. Send it with your layered file, and with a DrawDog link if you also work on a Mac or PC.

How long does a full-length Procreate time lapse take to export?

It depends on how long you worked and your quality setting. Longer sessions and higher quality make a bigger file.

Does the 30 Seconds export show everything?

No. Procreate removes frames to reach 30 seconds and keeps the most important ones, usually more from early in the drawing.

Can I get a time lapse for work I already finished?

No. Procreate only records while recording is on.

Want to see what a client sees? Open the sample certificate: drawdog.art/c/sample.

Procreate time lapse: how to export the full video (and fix a missing one)