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uMake vs Procreate: a drawing app or a 3D design app?
Updated October 5, 2026
The short answerPick uMake if the result you want is an object or a space you can turn around, measure, render and export to CAD or a 3D printer. Pick Procreate if the result is a picture: illustration, painting, lettering or hand-drawn concept art. They do different jobs, so many designers draw in Procreate and model in uMake.
A picture or an object?
Procreate is a drawing and painting app for iPad, with Procreate Pocket on iPhone and Procreate Dreams for animation. It’s built around brushes on a canvas.
uMake is a 3D design app for iPad, iPhone (including iPhone Duo with iOS 27.1) and Mac with Apple silicon. You also draw with Apple Pencil or a finger, but each stroke lands in 3D space, and curves become NURBS surfaces and solids you can orbit, dimension in millimeters or inches, and export as STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL or USDZ.
So the question isn’t which app is better. It’s whether you need to make a picture of a thing, or the thing itself in 3D.
What Procreate does with 3D
Procreate can paint on 3D models. You import a model in USDZ or OBJ format, which must have a UV map, then paint color, roughness and metallic onto it with Procreate’s brushes, light it, export it, and view it in AR. It’s a way to texture and finish a model, not to build one: the model comes from another 3D app.
At a glance
| uMake | Procreate | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPad, iPhone (including iPhone Duo) and Mac with Apple silicon | iPad; Procreate Pocket on iPhone |
| Best at | Designing objects and spaces in 3D, from sketch to model to render | Illustration, painting and hand-drawn artwork |
| Modeling approach | Strokes drawn in 3D, lifted into NURBS surfaces and solids to real dimensions | Doesn’t build 3D models; paints on USDZ or OBJ models made elsewhere |
| Drawing and painting | Freestyle 3D sketching with ink, pencil, marker, charcoal and chalk brushes; doodling on Spaces boards | A complete painting studio; exports PNG, JPEG, PSD, PDF and TIFF |
| AI tools | AI Design Partner builds editable 3D geometry; Live AI Preview renders your model; AI image tools in Spaces | Procreate has publicly said it isn’t chasing generative AI |
| Boards/ideation | Spaces: an infinite board for sketches, notes, photos and live 3D designs | No equivalent listed on Procreate’s site |
| File exchange | Imports STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL, USDZ, GLB, DAE, SVG, SketchUp; exports STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL, USDZ | 3D painting imports USDZ and OBJ |
| Getting started free | Free to download; opening and viewing 3D files is free; drawing, editing and export in the 3D editor need a plan | See Procreate’s site |
When to choose uMake
- You’re designing something real. Furniture, products, jewelry, rooms and buildings need forms you can turn, measure and hand to someone who makes them. uMake works to real dimensions and exports STEP and IGES for CAD tools, and STL and OBJ for 3D printing.
- You want to sketch, but in 3D. Freestyle keeps the feel of drawing, with ink, pencil, marker, charcoal and chalk brushes, but strokes land in 3D space. Pen and Precision draw clean and exact curves, and Apple Pencil Mode lets the Pencil draw while a finger orbits the view (sketch to 3D).
- You want to see the idea from every side. Orbit the model, render it with Live AI Preview, stage it in Scene Studio, or place it on a real table with View in AR on iPhone and iPad.
- You want AI to help build. AI Design Partner builds and edits editable 3D geometry from words or a reference image, such as a sketch (AI in uMake).
- You collect references. Spaces puts sketches, notes, photos, videos and 3D designs on one board, with layers and an underlay for tracing (Spaces).
When to choose Procreate
- The finished work is an image. Illustration, comics, lettering, painting and concept art are what Procreate is made for, and uMake isn’t a painting app.
- You want to texture a model by hand. Procreate’s 3D painting lets you paint color, roughness and metallic onto a USDZ or OBJ model with your own brushes.
- You want to animate drawings. Procreate Dreams is Procreate’s app for animation.
- You’d rather work without generative AI. Procreate has made that a public commitment. uMake’s modeling tools work without AI too, but AI is a large part of what it offers.
Using both together
- Drawing first, then 3D. Draw the concept in Procreate, export it as a PNG or JPEG, and put it in a uMake Space or use it as an underlay to trace. AI Design Partner can also start a model from it as a reference image.
- 3D first, then paint. Model the object in uMake and export USDZ or OBJ, the two formats Procreate’s 3D painting opens. Procreate needs the model to have a UV map, so test with one model before you plan a project around it.
- Paint over a render. Save a uMake render or a Live AI Preview image to Photos and paint over it in Procreate for a hand-finished presentation.
Can Procreate make 3D models?
Procreate’s 3D painting works on models you import in USDZ or OBJ format, with a UV map: it textures and finishes a model rather than building it. The model itself comes from a 3D app such as uMake.
Is uMake like Procreate but in 3D?
In feel, partly: you draw with Apple Pencil or a finger, and Freestyle has ink, pencil, marker, charcoal and chalk brushes. But uMake’s strokes land in 3D space and become surfaces and solids, and it isn’t a painting app.
Can I bring a Procreate drawing into uMake?
Yes. Export it from Procreate as a PNG or JPEG and add it to a Space, where you can use it as an underlay to trace or give it to AI Design Partner as a reference.
Do I need an Apple Pencil for uMake?
No. Every uMake tool works with your fingers on iPad and iPhone, and with a keyboard and trackpad on Mac. Apple Pencil makes freehand sketching more natural.
Try it in uMake.
uMake is free to download for iPad, iPhone and Mac.