What it does
Looom is a hand-drawn animation app for iPad and iPhone, organized around independent looping layers called threads. Each thread has its own length and speed, while its colour and line-or-fill appearance apply throughout. Projects use SVG, and the app is an upfront purchase.
Give each loop its own rhythm
Hold a thread’s reel to edit it, add frames and set its speed. Playback can run forward, backward, in ping-pong mode or randomly. The Pulley gesture scrubs time; Auto Insert adds a blank frame each time you finish a stroke. A project can contain up to five threads.
Music Time sets playback by BPM, and a connected MIDI clock can control the tempo. These controls suit abstract loops whose parts repeat at different rates.
Record or transfer the result
In Weave Edit, arm the recording control and press Play. Touch the screen to stop and open the video dialog. SVG project files are in the Looom/Weaves folder in Files.
The documented Animate transfer uses an additional script. It turns threads into layers, but independent frame rates do not survive, and masks or blending modes may need rebuilding.
Strengths
- Threads can loop at independent speeds and lengths
- BPM and MIDI clock controls connect motion with rhythm
- Native projects remain vector SVG files
Watch out for
- Projects are limited to five threads
- Colour and line-or-fill appearance apply to the whole thread
- Animate transfer loses independent thread frame rates
Best for
- Abstract drawn loops
- Animation experiments synchronized with musical timing
Sources
- Looom animation playground (Oct 27, 2026)
- Looom user guide: threads, recording and file transfer (Oct 27, 2026)
- Looom developer App Store listing (Oct 27, 2026)