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.
Rebelle 8: Pricing & plans
- A multi-platform software package
- One-off license at a cost that won’t break the bank
- Free trial available
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.
All in all, this feels like a very good start. Rebelle 8 available to buy from developer Escape Motions by clicking here.
Rebelle 8: Interface
- A well-designed interface
- Familiar enough to ease you in if you’re new to Rebelle
- Different enough that there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve
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.
This allows you to create a unique setup to match what you need to see as you digitally paint your projects. You’re also able to export this layout to make it easy to set up Rebelle on another computer with your customized personalised setup.
Overall, the interface is similar enough to not feel intimidating, but different enough that it will take you a few minutes to understand where everything is, and what it does. But the main takeaway is that it’s well designed, and is easy enough to understand that it won’t take you long to get the gist of it.
Rebelle 8: Tools
- So many brushes to play with, and so many parameters to explore
- Lots of different types of canvases
- Create truly unique projects… as long as you can handle some of the quirks
The tools available are pretty much all the various brushes you can work with – and there are so many. You start with selecting the type of brush from the top left section of the interface, like an acrylic brush, or one for watercolors, inks, pastels, etc.
Beneath that is another panel, with a handful of parameters to customize how the selected brush will paint on your chosen canvas, and you could easily leave it at that, but that would be ignoring the dozens of options further down the sidebar.
For instance, the Express Oil brushes have sub-categories, such as Round, Glaze, and Flat, and if that’s not enough, a drop down menu allows you to browse through and purchase additional ones.
The options and flexibilities are immense, and it can be a lot of fun to paint digitally in that way. You also have all the advantages of working on a computer, such as having multiple layers, cloning sections, erasing others, the lot.
There were a few things I was disappointed by, the biggest one being that I could only have one project open at a time. As someone who far too often has too many ideas on the go, this felt unnecessarily restrictive to me.
Another had to do with controlling the canvas itself. I work on a laptop and use a multi-touch trackpad for everything, but even with all the options I could find disabled, that canvas would move or suddenly zoom in or out at random moments.
Thankfully there’s a handy and simple keyboard shortcut to bring it all back to the centre, filling the screen, but it got really annoying by the end. I think the lesson here is don’t use the trackpad when doing serious artistic work with Rebelle.
Also, despite using a powerful computer to test this out (a laptop with an M5 chip), I felt like sometimes I had to wait a few seconds for the software to render the stroke I made. This app needs a lot of power.
Rebelle 8: What’s new?
- No revolutionary ‘wow’ additions
- Relatively small improvements makes creative life much easier
Version 8 brings a few refinements to this software package – nothing earth shattering, but they’re welcome additions nonetheless. Here are some I felt were important to mention.
The Canvas Panel has been streamlined, making it easy to select a new type of paper and see all those you don’t yet have, but are available for purchase – you can even test this new canvas prior to acquiring it (if this constant advertisement is not your thing, use the filter options to remove those as yet un-owned canvases from the list).
On the other side of the interface are your favourite brushes. That’s nothing new. But right next to them is a new tab, featuring all the latest brushes you’ve used in your current session. This is a most welcome way to help you keep track of what you’ve been working with without you having to do anything.
When it comes to painting, there’s always been a limit to how big a brush can be. In the standard sidebar, that’s usually up to 100. Switch to the Creator Brush panel and you can now go up to 3,000 which is almost big enough to cover an entire canvas with one brush stroke.
There’s also a new Symmetry tool which essentially cuts your canvas right down the middle and everything you draw on one side is instantly mirrored on the other.
And last on my list is the ‘Line’ tool which always allowed you to easily draw parallel lines, but now lets you add perpendicular ones as well, which can save you a heck of a lot of time.
Should I buy Rebelle 8?
Buy it if…
You’re a creative who’s always loved the feel of the brush on your canvas, are looking for a way to reproduce this digitally, and love the fact you only need to pay once to own the software.
Don’t buy it if…
Your creative outlet doesn’t extend to replicating how real-life brushes work in a digital environment, and you’d be much happier with the likes of Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro instead.
How I tested Rebelle 8
I fired up my trusty M5 MacBook Pro for this review of Rebelle 8. I sadly couldn’t test the software on my PC laptop – it’s high time I upgraded anyway – although it does show that Rebelle needs more oomph than a lot of other software in its category.
The minimum requirements are an Intel i7 chip with 16GB of RAM, and my PC can’t match that. Considering the computations needed to simulate how real-life paint and brushes behave, I’m not surprised at all that Rebelle 8 would need more power than Photoshop.
But on my Mac, aside from the issues I highlighted in the review, I had no complaints, and the gallery on Escape Motions’ website shows how realistic the paintings done with Rebelle can end up looking.
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