Escape Motions’ Rebelle 8 attempts to replicate real-world brushes and canvases in a digital environment, and does an excellent job at that – as long as you’ve got a powerful enough computer to run it. The latest improvements are most welcome and will ease and speed up many people’s creative workflow, and the price is pretty reasonable considering what it can do.
Sometimes need to repeat your request for it to work
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Taking a photo and altering it, like you can do with Adobe Photoshop, is old hat these days, as so many apps allow you to do just that. But if you’re an artist who loves to paint, this type of software can’t replicate the feel of watercolours, oils, acrylics, and pastels as they’re applied onto a canvas.
Some developers saw this as a challenge: how to replicate painting on a canvas in the digital world. Escape Motions’ Rebelle is a serious competitor in this field, and have introduced a few new features with their latest 8th version. Let’s take a look at it.
You can check out Rebelle 8 by clicking here.
There’s a lot of good news for people who like to own – actually own – multi-platform software: first of, Rebelle is available for Windows and Mac users (sadly, Linux fans are all too often left out of the loop, as they are here).
Even better, there’s no option to rent the software: you purchase it with a one-time fee of $90. Which is quite reasonable for software of this caliber, especially since you’re allowed to install it on up to three computers.
There is a more advanced version, called Rebelle Pro for $150. Finally, Escape Motions offers a very generous 30-day trial so you can check out the software and see how it works for you.
You will have to create an account with them in order to access it, but all they ask is an email address – you keep your credit card details to yourself.
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All in all, this feels like a very good start. Rebelle 8 available to buy from developer Escape Motions by clicking here.
If this is your first foray into Rebelle, you’ll find the interface very similar to other image editing applications. You have two sidebars, one on either side. The left one focusses on your brushes, while on the right, you have your layers, color selections, and navigational options.
The rest of the screen real estate is devoted to your canvas, but that’s not all there is to it. Hop on over to the Menubar’s Window menu to see other tools, which are available by default as floating windows.
However the interface is highly flexible, enabling you to dock these windows into either sidebar, be it as their own unique dedicated area, or sharing the space with other tools – when that happens, a small series of tabs will appear above that shared section, allowing you to switch between them.