The small Slovakian team at Escape Motions is back with a major update to their paint software Rebelle, promising to be ever closer to that of traditional painting.

Based on months of studying watercolors, brushes, testing hundreds of various papers, and working closely with the art community, a new Rebelle 3 update "unites tradition and technology with an original approach," according to the company's press release.

Highlights of the release include "ultra-realistic papers, the imitations of professional papers and canvases with both cut and deckled edges are not just a thing of material world any more. From now on, artists can use them digitally as well." The developers are also introducing “DropEngine” – a new simulation system that allows recreating the behavior of paint drips. Drips now respond realistically to paper structure, stencils and selections. And new Ruler and Perspective tools round out the release.

Escape Motions founder and a head behind Rebelle algorithm, Peter Blaskovic says: “We put art first. This new version comes again closer to blur the line between traditional and digital painting as it will give the artists an infinite range of expression possibilities packed in a simple interface. Rebelle 3 has made big strides in improving the realism of its world-class watercolor brushes, which can now accurately mimic all sorts of behavior on different paper surfaces.”

Availability and System Requirements

The latest Rebelle 3 version is available for Windows and Mac OS for $89.99 from April 30th 2018 on Escape Motions website. It comes with unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee as well as more than 50 % discount for existing Rebelle users. Users who purchased Rebelle 2 after March 1st this year will get a free upgrade to version 3 on its release.

Minimum: Intel i5 or equivalent AMD processor, 4GB RAM, 100MB hard disk space, Open GL graphics card with 1GB RAM, Windows Vista (64-bit or 32-bit) or Mac OS X 10.8.

Recommended: Intel i7 or equivalent AMD processor, 16GB RAM, 100MB hard disk space, Open GL graphics card with 4GB RAM, 64-bit system Windows 7, 8, 10 or Mac OS X 10.9 and newer, Wacom or Surface compatible tablet.

New Key Features

Ultra-realistic papers - In the new version you can use not only textured paper backgrounds, but also an imitation of professional watercolor papers, some of them with deckled - rough and irregular edges, including: hot press, cold press, rough, Japanese, canvases and others.
Watercolor simulation code re-design - To adapt to the new papers, a watercolor simulation code has been rewritten to be even more realistic than before. In Rebelle 3 you will be able to change the watercolor behavior and other settings via Visual Settings panel.
New ‘DropEngine’ - Developer implemented a new “DropEngine” especially to simulate drips and connected it with Rebelle 3 watercolor simulation. Drips behave more naturally now - their appearance is influenced by paper structure, water, stencils and selections.
‘Masking Fluid’ layer - The masking fluid allows you to paint freely over the masked area. Using this handy tool, there’s no need to paint around complex objects laboriously any more.
Straight line, Ruler & Perspective tools – Rebelle 3 introduces you to the new useful drawing assistants. You can lock the control points if you don’t wish to move the ruler, or paint with a freehand, so the lines will not be “too digital” when painting.
‘Reference Image’ and ‘Preview’ panel - Reference image panel was one of the most demanded features from Rebelle users. This panel serves as a visual guide while painting. Preview panel is very practical when you work on detail but you don’t want to zoom in & out all the time to see the whole picture.
Magic Wand - This newly implemented tool will help you create selections based on tone and color of the pixels.
Support for pen rotation - Support for brush rotations which is now available by activating Follow Brush, Pen tilt or Pen rotation setting.
Canvas and Image resize - Other great news is the implementation of ‘Canvas Size’ and ‘Image Size’ - a new tool that will serve for cropping, scaling and resizing your work.
New „Filter“ menu – This new menu allows artists to make desired color adjustments to their painting, with a help of such as Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Lightness, Color Balance and other color filters.

About Escape Motions and Peter Blaškovič

Escape Motions is a small studio of creatives and coders dedicated to develop innovative visual tools. They love to experiment with interactive art, new media and code to find a new expression and bring new experience for artists and designers who want to stand out from the crowd. This is why Flame Painter, Amberlight, Inspirit and Rebelle were born.

How did it all begin? What’s the story behind Escape Motions?

Peter Blaškovič, a young designer from Slovak Republic, developed in 2009 a painting application within his "I am an artist" experimental project, which became one of the top procedural painting applications in the world. He called it Flame Painter, and its unique particle brushes allow the artist to create original artworks, light effects or unconventional designs since then. The latest version Flame Painter 3 offers many advanced features for CG artists and professionals, whereas Flame Painter for iOS with its intuitive and playful user interface is specially designed for children and enthusiast artists.

An equally unique and innovative Amberlight 2 is perfect tool for all digital artists who love to experiment with beautiful computer generated fractal-like images and animations. A relaxing painting app for creative souls - Inspirit soothes the soul and lets you create mesmerizing mandalas and kaleidoscope artworks and watch them slowly evolve in time.

After launching the first version of Rebelle in May 2015, the team kept on working on new features for two years to deliver the closest a digital tool has ever come to the flow, spontaneity, and feel of traditional materials - Rebelle 3. After implementing many unique ideas and users' suggested features, Rebelle 3 comes closer to blur the line between traditional and digital painting. With its unparalleled organic feel, this new-era painting tool is a must-have for every artist’s digital toolbox.

Peter believes that everyone can be an artist and his vision is to inspire people to be creative. "Many people think they cannot draw or paint at all. Therefore I want to keep creating tools that encourage and liberate people to express themselves." he says.

Rebelle is available to try in a free online version (java script running in browser window).

Rebelle 3 promises to be closer to traditional painting