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

After a year and a half of dedicated development, we’re thrilled to announce that Rebelle 8 is coming at the end of Q3 this year! Packed with exciting new features, performance improvements, and innovative creative tools, this version marks one of our most ambitious updates yet.

For artists eager to explore what's coming in Rebelle 8, we’re excited to offer Early Access before the official release. Starting in late June or July, Early Access gives you the opportunity to try out the new features firsthand, share feedback, and eventually play a part in shaping the final version.

You know us — with every Rebelle release, our mission has always been to blend cutting-edge technology with creativity that allows us to come as close to reality as possible. Rebelle 8 is no exception. One of its standout features is a bold leap forward in impasto rendering and delivering richer, thicker, and more textured brushstrokes.

This improvement is powered by significant technological progress from our development team. By implementing raytracing and environment mapping, Rebelle 8 will render the depth and realism of traditional oil painting like never before, bringing a whole new dimension to your canvas.

Examples of impasto strokes in Rebelle 8 Pro.

RealShader: Photorealistic Lighting of Oil Paintings 

Environment mapping, also known as reflection mapping, is a graphics technique used to make objects look reflective. Instead of calculating real-time reflections, it uses a pre-made image that represents the surrounding environment. This texture is then mapped onto the object to simulate how it would reflect its surroundings, making it appear shiny or metallic without using complex lighting calculations.

In Rebelle 8 Pro, we’ve created RealShader - a new generation of realistic Rebelle materials using real photos as environment maps. These maps simulate how light interacts with thick paint, making your brushstrokes look more lifelike.

You will be able to choose from three built-in maps in the Visual Settings panel:

- Environment 1 - The new environment reflects light the most.
- Environment 2 - The new environment with a more subtle shine.
- Legacy - An environment similar to Rebelle 7 lighting without NanoPixel.

This creates a synergistic effect with soft shadows to achieve a much deeper, more realistic oil painting effect.A - Environment 1 | B - Environment 2 | C - Legacy

SoftShadows: Shadows Based on Raytracing

Raytracing is a technique that mimics how light behaves in the real world to create realistic images. It traces the path of light as it interacts with objects in a scene, helping simulate effects like reflections, shadows, transparency, soft lighting, and even color distortions seen through glass. This method allows digital images to look much more natural and visually rich by accurately modeling how light moves and bounces.

In Rebelle 8 Pro, we’ve brought this powerful technology into a real-time painting environment - oil brushstrokes can cast realistic shadows, reflect light based on their shape and color, and exhibit a sense of three-dimensional volume, all while you’re painting. 

            Left: RealShader ON | Shadows OFF                                      Right: RealShader ON | Shadows ON

Because the raytracing takes color and shape into account, white strokes reflect more light and appear brighter, while darker tones absorb more light, casting deeper shadows. This gives artists precise visual feedback and control over their painting’s depth, realism, and lighting, all in real time. It’s a big leap forward for digital oil painting.

 
NanoPixel 2: Improved NanoPixel

Rebelle 8 Pro introduces a major upgrade to its NanoPixel technology, now offering a sharper and more detailed zoom experience across the entire canvas.

Compared to the first NanoPixel version, the upgraded system uses new, larger, and sharper texture maps. As a result, structures in oil paint, especially thick impasto strokes, appear noticeably more defined and crisp, enhancing depth and realism in your artwork. 

Compared to Rebelle 7 Pro, which supported image export up to 4×4 upscale, Rebelle 8 Pro now allows for up to 20×20 (2000%) NanoPixel export, providing dramatically higher resolution and precision ideal for large-format prints or close-up views of brushwork and textures.
The export size is capped for all formats at 32,000 × 32,000 pixels, except TIFF (which has unlimited size), a practical limit for handling ultra-high-res images without overloading system memory.

Moreover, thanks to environment mapping, the fine details in your strokes are now more realistic. For example, we captured a photo of a gray-painted sphere and used it to create one of the texture maps, enhancing the realism of the brushwork.
The evolution of Rebelle's impasto rendering.

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 join 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. Follow us on Instagram and stay tuned for updates and sneak peeks of what’s coming!

Thank you for your continuous support!
Escape Motions Team

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Cover image made in Rebelle 8 Pro by Georg Ireland | Visit Portfolio

It has been 10 years since the first version of Rebelle introduced its unique watercolor simulation to the digital art world. What started as a bold experiment by architect Peter Blaškovič has since grown into one of the most beloved natural media painting applications available today. As a part of the celebration of this milestone, key members of the Rebelle development team look back on the journey so far, explore the evolution of its groundbreaking features, and take a peek at what lies ahead.

To reflect on a decade of innovation, we spoke with four members of the Rebelle development team who have each played an essential role in shaping the software’s evolution:

Michal Fapšo, software architect
Miroslav Sedlák, lead developer
Martin Surovček, senior developer
Pavol Obuch, developer

Watch this interview on YouTube: youtu.be/TtgN-TeEMh0

Can you talk about how Rebelle has evolved, from the first version until now?

Michal: Before the first version of Rebelle was released, Peter Blaškovič spent over two years experimenting with watercolor simulation. That was the most turbulent period for Rebelle’s fluid engine. We then built on this prototype and reused many building blocks from Flame Painter, which gave us a solid foundation for Rebelle 1.
Rebelle version 1 user interface, 2015

Miroslav: The first version had only five brush presets and was focused almost entirely on watercolors. Later, we introduced the Brush Creator, giving users advanced control over brush behavior, and expanded into oils with impasto and natural dry media. These new tools required significant changes to Rebelle’s brush engine, but allowed us to introduce the software to a broader audience.

Pavol: Over time, we’ve added features like watercolor drips, NanoPixel rendering with OpenGL, and pigment color mixing developed by our friends Šárka and Ondra from Secret Weapons.

Comparison of Traditional pigments vs. Rebelle Pigments vs. RGB

Many of these innovations went through a lengthy trial-and-error phase. The final releases show only a fraction of the changes the Rebelle core underwent during research and prototyping.

Rebelle by the Numbers:

• Rebelle 1: 120,000 lines of code
• Rebelle 7: Over 600,000 lines of code
• Current code length if printed: 6 km (3.7 miles)
• 107 versions released (updates & upgrades)
• 5,600 fixes (averaging 2 per day)

How do you balance realism vs. performance?

Pavol: It’s a constant battle, as we want to provide our users with a smooth and responsive painting experience while delivering outstanding visuals. We start with research, observing how real tools behave, and then try to translate that into code. Once we achieve the visuals we’re aiming for, we focus on optimization. We use vectorization and multi-threading to ensure Rebelle runs smoothly even on Peter’s original 10-year-old development computer.
Experiments using traditional watercolor brushes

What was the biggest technical hurdle in the early stages of development?

Michal: The biggest challenge has always been balancing realism with performance. For instance, during the initial watercolor simulation phase, the painting experience was too slow. We nearly gave up. But then Peter had the idea to pause the fluid simulation during brush strokes and use the full CPU for painting. It made the app not only faster but more responsive for artists.

To mention a more recent hurdle, adapting our codebase for mobile platforms—especially for an iPad version—has required substantial refactoring. There is still quite a lot to do, but it's a high priority for us, and we will continue working on it after the Rebelle 8 release. 

Over the years, there were many technical hurdles, but we were able to solve them somehow. We gradually came to the mindset of not worrying when we can't find a solution, because we will it eventually. Sometimes all it needs is a different perspective.

Were there any "happy accidents" — features or design elements that emerged unexpectedly but turned out to be great?

Miroslav: One bug let artists change color mid-oil stroke, which we never fixed because users loved it. That eventually inspired our dirty brush feature.

Michal: We are often amazed by our users who use Rebelle tools or combine them in new, creative ways we haven't imagined before.

What tools or programming languages power Rebelle under the hood?

Miroslav: We use C++ for our core functionality and Qt for the user interface. This setup has been with us from the beginning, giving us performance and flexibility. We also rely on several open-source libraries, and we’re grateful to the community for that support.
Example of Rebelle code

Was there any bug that haunted you in your sleep?

Miroslav: While none truly haunted my sleep, there have certainly been a fair share of tricky issues. Especially concerning tablet devices, either with touch gestures or pen input. The challenge lies in the diverse ecosystem of hardware and drivers. Over the years, we've implemented multiple APIs—Windows Ink, Wintab, Windows Pointer Input—to ensure broad compatibility.

Michal: Some bugs may take longer to get resolved, mainly when they're hard to reproduce. We're very grateful to our users for sending in bug reports and crash logs—they’re essential in helping us track down and fix issues.

Do you envision Rebelle expanding into new platforms or technologies?

Miroslav: Yes, we're always looking to the future. Our primary focus for expansion is mobile platforms. We see immense potential in bringing Rebelle's unique painting experience to a wider audience on devices like tablets. However, there's still some work to be done before we can make that leap.

We're refining the UI and UX for smaller, touch-first screens. A major codebase refactoring last year was a key step toward this.

Michal: One unexpected expansion was into the film industry. Pav Grochola from Sony Imageworks reached out with a vision of using Rebelle for watercolor effects in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie. That collaboration led to Rebelle Motion IO.

It's still quite difficult to use for non-programmers, but one of our users is working on a plugin for Blender that would make it usable even for artists. You can find more about it on our forum here.Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures Industries, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Marvel

Rebelle 8 is coming soon. Can you hint at some new features artists can look forward to?

Pavol: For Rebelle 8, we wanted to improve our painting engine, especially oil and watercolor brushes, but soon ran into limitations of our old system that we weren’t quite able to overcome. So, we’ve set ourselves a goal to create an entirely new engine from scratch that would allow us to better emulate these tools. We were experimenting and observing the behaviour of real brushes and oil paints, and tried different approaches. We found out that simulating each brush bristle is the only approach that provides us with the flexibility and variability we want. The result is that artists can expect not only more realistic brushes but, surprisingly, also an improved performance. It took us one year to develop this technology.

Martin: While studying oil paintings, I discovered new possibilities that could also be applied to Rebelle. This led to a brand-new oil material, based not only on the new NanoPixel but also on real textures, which were extracted from actual oil paintings. Material realism also requires realistic shadows, so the result was an innovative ray tracing solution for Rebelle that brings real-time soft shadows for a much deeper impasto effect.

This is just a small hint at what´s coming. All Rebelle 8 new features will be introduced in a series of blog posts and videos over the course of the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

What features or accomplishments are you most proud of introducing during these 10 years?

Martin: NanoPixel, without a doubt. We wanted to push Rebelle’s visuals beyond pixel-based rendering. Peter gave me a free hand, and that’s when I came up with NanoPixel technology. It now powers real-time scaling, transformations, and our liquify tool, and it’s only getting better in Rebelle 8.
NanoPixel technology introduced in Rebelle 5 Pro, 2000x zoom to paper detail

Pavol: I must highlight the Brush Engine. It’s become incredibly powerful and versatile, letting us and Rebelle users create everything from pencils to palette knives.

Miroslav: I would probably mention touch and keyboard shortcuts. We implemented them in version 1 and continue to improve support for tablets, which are essential for digital painting. I believe it’s a feature used daily.

Michal: The most important thing for me is the team itself. We’ve worked together for years, overcoming countless challenges. Beyond the four of us here, there are 7 more developers -Tono, Rasťo, Tomáš, Gabo, Jožo, Martin, and Matúš. Veronika and Alžbeta from marketing and support, Jarko and Mykola from web, Marek from graphics, Samuel overseeing social media, and many others who worked with us over the years. And of course, Peter, whose vision and guidance are crucial to the project.

Thank you all for stepping away from the code and daily grind to share insights into the development of Rebelle. From humble experiments to award-winning tools used by digital artists and major studios alike, your passion and persistence have made Rebelle what it is today.