Rebelle 8: Bristle Brushes

After a long time of research and careful development, Rebelle 8 is getting close, and it’s packed with some of our most exciting features to date. From powerful new brushes to improved painting experience, with more than 40+ new features, this release continues our mission to blend cutting-edge technology with the beauty of traditional art. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what’s coming:

- Bristle brushes that bring stunning realism to every stroke

- Enhanced Brush Creator features new settings for bristle brushes for more expressive customization

- Larger brushes with a maximum size of 3,000 pixels

- Recent brushes panel to streamline your workflow

And yes, Early Access is coming soon, so artists like you can try it all before the official launch. Let’s dive in!

Bristle Brushes

In developing Rebelle 8, one of our primary goals was to get even closer to the behavior of real-world brushes. During this process, we discovered significant limitations in our previous system, particularly the inability to replicate fine brush features, which restricted the realism and variability we could offer.

So we set out to create an entirely new brush engine from scratch - one designed to more accurately capture the behavior of real-world brushes. With this new engine, we've overcome many of the limitations we faced before. And now, in Rebelle 8 Pro, we're excited to introduce a brand-new category of brushes: Bristle Brushes.Example of bristle brushes in Rebelle 8 Pro

These brushes are powered by our new particle brush system, which lets us simulate the movement and behavior of each individual strand. This means every stroke can respond uniquely to color, smudging, pressure, and more, unlocking a whole new level of creative expression.Example of color jitter per stroke and per bristle

Unlike texture brushes, where we use shape and grain textures to create an imitation of brush strands, it is a system that draws individual brush strands directly. This allows for great flexibility; each hair can be done differently, or they can even influence each other.
Left: Texture brushes | Right: Bristle brushes

Impasto painting, in particular, has greatly improved: older brushes simply added or subtracted impasto based on texture patterns, often resulting in flat, mechanical strokes. The new brushes, however, offer greater depth, complexity, and natural variation in how paint is applied and removed. This leads to richer, more dynamic strokes that better reflect how real brushes interact with a canvas.
The result is a major leap forward in simulating the physical qualities of traditional painting tools, allowing artists to enjoy more expressive and realistic brushwork in their digital creations. Thanks to this new system, we were also able to significantly boost brush performance in Rebelle 8. Brushes now respond faster and feel smoother, even when working with large sizes or complex strokes. This improvement ensures a more natural and seamless painting experience, allowing artists to stay fully immersed in their creative flow without interruptions.

You will find the new settings for Bristle brushes in the Brush Creator panel of Rebelle 8 Pro:

In the Brush Creator, you’ll have full control over your brush settings — from strand density and thickness to behavior and impasto effects. You can also adjust size, opacity, pen pressure response, and many other parameters to fine-tune your brush exactly the way you like.

"I spent the whole day today experimenting with the new bristle brushes. The results, also in combination with the new RealShader settings, are simply breathtaking." Georg Ireland, Rebelle Featured Artist

4.28x Larger Brushes

Until Rebelle 7, the maximum brush size was capped at 700 pixels due to technical constraints in our brush engine — enough for detailed work, but sometimes limiting when working on larger canvases or broad strokes.

Thanks to the new brush engine, you can now push brush sizes up to 3,000 pixels, which is 4.28× larger than before. Whether you want to block in backgrounds quickly, create sweeping gestures, or add expressive textures with bold strokes, the new larger brushes give you the freedom to work on a grander scale and with stunning realism.

Recent Brushes

In Rebelle 8, the software now automatically keeps track of the brushes you’ve recently used within your current painting project. These brushes are conveniently collected and displayed in a new 'Recent' tab under the Favorites brushes tool, making it easy to switch back to tools you’ve been using frequently without manually reselecting them.

Early Access Starting Soon

The full version of Rebelle 8 is set to launch at the end of Q3 2025. But if you're eager to dive in early, you can get Rebelle 8 in the Early Access, starting late June or July.

If you purchase Rebelle 7 on or after May 28, 2025, you’ll be eligible for a free upgrade to the equivalent edition of Rebelle 8. Keep an eye on our upcoming blog posts to discover more exciting features coming to Rebelle 8. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for the latest updates and exclusive sneak peeks!

Thank you for your continuous support!
Escape Motions Team

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Cover image and artworks in the blog made in Rebelle 8 Pro by Philipp Neundorf | Visit Portfolio