Escape Motions releases Rebelle 8 in early access
Escape Motions has released Rebelle 8, the new version of the natural media painting software, in early access.
It’s a wide-ranging update, particularly in the Pro edition, which gets a new set of Bristle Brushes, and support for environment lighting and ray traced soft shadows on thick paint.
Pro users also get better AI image upscaling, better import and export of PSD files – and even support for the WebSocket API, to make it possible to use Rebelle in live performances.
Both standard and Pro editions get a new RYB color wheel, Color Harmonies system, intelligent symmetry painting, and a lot of workflow and performance improvements.
A natural media paint package that accurately mimics the behavior of real-world paints
First released in 2015, Rebelle mimics the behaviour of real watercolor, acrylic and oil paint, complete with fluid flow and pigment-based color mixing.
It can also mimic dry media, including pencil, pastel and marker, while commercial add-on packs replicate the textures of real-world papers, canvases and lithography stones.
Recent updates have rounded out the feature set with more conventional drawing and image-manipulation tools, including AI-based Liquify and Warp tools.
Rebelle 8 Pro edition: new particle-based Bristle brushes
For users of the Pro edition of the software, key changes include the new Bristle Brushes.
Unlike the existing Texture brushes, which use textures to imitate brush strands, they’re based on a new particle brush system, which simulates the movement of each strand individually.
Strands can respond uniquely to color and pressure, and can even affect one another.
According to Escape Motions, the new system improves the realism of impasto paint effects, and the underlying changes improve the responsiveness of painting in general.
Pro only: RealShader, SoftShadows and Smooth Scaling
Other new features include RealShader, a “new generation” of Rebelle materials that use environment maps.
The maps are used for image-based lighting in the same way as in 3D software, generating more realistic lighting effects on raised paint surfaces: in the initial release, thick oil paint.
Users can choose from three built-in maps, one mimicking lighting in Rebelle 7 and earlier.
In addition, oil brushtrokes now cast ray traced shadows, creating a better sense of 3D volume.
The changes to Rebelle’s rendering engine that power RealShader also power Smooth Scaling, a new anti-aliasing system.
It is intended to ensure that thin strokes, like pencil or ink lines, remain smooth even when the canvas is zoomed out to the full extend.
Pro only: NanoPixel 2, better Metallic materials and expanded PSD support
The NanoPixel AI-based image upscaling system introduced in Rebelle 5 has been updated, raising the maximum increase in resolution from 16x to 20x.
Export size is now capped at 32,000 x 32,000px for most file formats, but is unlimited for TIFFs.
For exchanging files with other digital painting software, support for Photoshop’s PSD file format has been extended to preserve layer arrangements and masks “more faithfully”.
You can see a list of PSD properties currently supported in this blog post.
Photoshop live link plugin Escape Motions Connect also now runs natively on current Apple Silicon Macs, rather than in Rosetta emulation mode, as in the initial release.
Other updates to existing features include the option to use custom reflectivity patterns for the metallic materials introduced in Rebelle 7.
Pro only: WebSocket support may make it possible to use Rebelle in live performances
Another interesting, more speculative feature in the Pro edition is support for WebSockets.
The WebSocket API enables two-way communications sessions between a software application and a remote server: in this case, making it possible to control Rebelle remotely.
Escape Motions says that the workflow could be used for interactive installations or live performances, although it is “genuinely curious” to see how artists use it in practice.
The system is built on Motion IO, the firm’s scripting system for VFX and motion graphics studios, used by Sony Pictures Imageworks on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The new RYB color wheel in Rebelle 8 (right), compared to the standard RGB color wheel.
Both editions: New RYB color wheel and Color Harmonies tool
Both editions of the software get new color picking features, including a RYB color wheel.
Rebelle has supported the RYB (Red Yellow Blue) color model, which mimics the subtractive color mixing of real-world pigments, since version 4.
The current release also introduces a new Color Harmonies tool, which generates color palettes based on Complementary, Analogous Complementary, Triadic and Tetradic harmonies.
The Gradient preview, which displays a hue along a black-to-white gradient, has been reintroduced as a slider to make color picking more intuitive.
Both editions: new Symmetry tool mirrors paint strokes intelligently
Both editions of the software also get the new Symmetry tool, which mirrors brush strokes intelligently from one side of the canvas to the other.
Rather than just mirroring the pixels, it clones the entire brush engine, meaning that the stroke interacts independently with the paint and paper texture on each side of the canvas.
Both editions: workflow and performance updates
There are also a lot of workflow and performance updates, particularly to the brush engine.
The maximum brush size has been raised from 700px to 3,000px, and recently used brushes are now stored in a new tab in the Favorite Brushes tool to make it easier to find them again.
It is also now possible to control more properties on a per-layer basis, including impasto settings and filter layer properties including brightness, contrast, hue and saturation.
Other changes include the option to move the anchor point when transforming a layer or selection, making it possible to scale or rotate it around a specific point.
There is also a self-descriptive View at Print Size option for previewing art work,
You can see a complete list of new features on Escape Motions’ blog: most of the smaller workflow improvements are covered in either this blog post or this one.
Price, system requirements and release date
Rebelle 8 is available in early access for users with Escape Motions Community accounts.
The standard edition costs $89.99, and Rebelle 8 Pro costs $149.99. According to Escape Motions, the price will not change on the official release in September 2025.
Rebelle is compatible with Windows 10+ and macOS 10.15+.
Read an overview of the new features in Rebelle 8 on Escape Motions’ blog
See a feature comparison between the standard and Pro editions of Rebelle.
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