Mental Canvas
Reimagining drawing for the digital age
Founded
2016
Starting Price
Free
Category
Design & Creative
Last updated April 27, 2026
About Mental Canvas
Mental Canvas is a digital drawing platform that lets creatives sketch in spatial 3D, navigate scenes freely, and produce interactive visual narratives. It transforms traditional pen-and-paper concepts into shareable, animated, web-publishable content for design firms, publishers, and individual artists.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unique spatial drawing approach not found in traditional 2D illustration tools
- Outputs publishable interactive web scenes that viewers can navigate
- Used by major brands like Disney Imagineering, NBC, Nike, and The New York Times
- Supports VR playback for immersive presentations
- Free tier lets artists fully evaluate the toolkit before paying
Cons
Key Features
Spatial Strokes
Draw with strokes positioned in 3D space rather than flat 2D layers, enabling depth and perspective.
3D Navigation
Move the camera freely through your drawing to explore scenes from any angle.
Free-Form Animation
Animate scenes by transitioning between camera viewpoints without keyframe complexity.
Interactive Web Scenes
Publish drawings as embeddable interactive scenes that viewers can navigate in a browser.
VR Player
View Mental Canvas creations in virtual reality for immersive storytelling and presentation.
Image Import Workflow
Import photos and reference images to trace, annotate, or build spatial drawings on top of.
4K Video Export
Export animated camera tours of your scenes as high-resolution video files.
Pricing
Free
Free
- Full drawing toolkit
- Spatial strokes and 3D navigation
- Watermark on video export
Pro
$9.99/month
Best For
Concept Art & Storyboarding
Build spatial sketches that double as 3D-navigable storyboards for film, animation, and game pre-production.
Architectural & Urban Design Sketching
Communicate spatial concepts to clients with interactive walkthroughs of hand-drawn schemes.
Editorial Illustration & Interactive Journalism
Publish scrollable, navigable visual stories embedded in articles for outlets and magazines.
Product Design Presentation
Show product ideas from multiple angles in a single drawing instead of separate 2D views.
Ready to try Mental Canvas?
Start using Mental Canvas today and boost your productivity.
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