React Native Skia

Use Skia when the task needs custom drawing. Keep accessible native controls and ordinary layout as native views. For an existing app, inspect the actual locked Skia/React Native/React/Reanimated/Worklets versions, target platforms, rendering backend, and relevant component before changing dependencies or architecture.

Choose by workload

Use retained drawing for stable scenes with animated props, Picture when recording a changing command list is justified, and Atlas for repeated sprites sharing a texture. Reuse textures for repeated expensive motifs only when profiling or the workload supports that tradeoff. A shader is not automatically faster than shapes; blur, overdraw, texture uploads, resolution, and live resource count matter.

Define the intended visual hierarchy, interaction, assets, bounds, and reduced- motion state. For broad creative requests, choose a coherent direction and proceed; do not require a design workshop for a small effect. Preserve useful design and primitive-selection methods in the references below.