Project Dogwaffle team releases Howler 2025.5
Originally posted on 9 September 2024. Scroll down for news of the Howler 2025.5 update.
The developers of hard-to-classify digital painting, animation and video processing tool Howler have begun the Howler 2025 release series.
Howler 2025 itself introduces a new LiquidFX tool for freeform image deformation, plus updates to Howler’s existing text, greenscreen removal and object removal toolsets.
An idiosyncratic low-cost natural media paint package with a lot of unexpected features
Originally released two decades ago, Howler – originally Project Dogwaffle – is an idiosyncratic sub-$100 digital painting and content creation tool.
Its core strength is natural media painting, but it also features basic 3D rendering capabilities, primarily for landscapes and foliage, and animation features including a timeline, onion skinning, frame repair, retiming, and an exposure sheet for lip sync animation.
Howler 2025: new LiquifyFX tool and halftone gradient fill
New features in Howler 2025 include LiquidFX, a new tool for brush-based freeform deformation of images, along the lines of Photoshop’s Liquify filter.
There is also a new halftone gradient fill.
Updates to the Text tool and to greenscreen and object removal
The existing Text tool is now supplemented by a new Text Object tool, which provides a greater range of options for formatting text, including outles, drop shadows and perspective warping.
For greenscreen removal, it is now possible to sample multiple color values from the screen when using Select by Color to help refine the matte and reduce color spill.
For object removal, a new Advanced Feature Removal window makes it possible to mirror or rotate a source area of an image before blending it over another part of the image.
Updated 7 October 2025: Howler 2025.1 has been released.
The update adds WatercolorFX, a Rebelle-style watercolor painting toolset that mimics the way in which real paint flows and blends, shown in the initial proof-of-concept video above.
The Text tool gets a further update, adding the option to flow text along Bézier curves.
Updated 31 March 2025: Howler 2025.5 has been released.
The update adds a new text crawl tool for creating animated title crawls like the one above, and a new blur tool.
Pricing and availability
Howler 2025 is available for Windows only. It has an MSRP of $56.99, although the software is usually available at a significantly lower price.
Watercolor FX is available as a standalone tool with a MSRP of $17.99.
Read a full list of new features in Howler 2025
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