Like Photoshop, After Effects include the blending mode drop down options, this is a must know feature to become a good motion designer. When used appropriately the AE blending mode options can be very powerful and improve your video, motion graphics to the next level.
My objective here is to save you time and to show you a comprehensive preview of each blend mode in After Effects with clear and simple definition so you can quickly decide which blend mode works best for your layers, compositions or video.
Let’s get started with the essential below.
What’s blending mode in After Effects
In simple term blending mode allows you to blend light, colors, or shape of a layer against other layers below it.
When you apply blending mode to a layer all the layer below it are affected.
Blending mode are typically use to merge the data of multiple layers, it is heavily used when compositing in After effects.
Tips: You can import your photoshop psd file that contain blending layers into an After effects composition it will keep the exact same settings.
Where is the blending mode located in After Effects.
The blending mode options can be found on the After Effects timeline, see screenshot below.
If you don’t find the blend mode dropdown right click on the Layer name > Columns > Modes
Blend mode shortcut
You can quickly switch the blending mode drop down option by using this shortcut: Hold SHIFT then press – or +
After Effect Blend mode list
In the After Effects you will find 38 blending mode in the drop down menu, check the blend mode list below you can click on each one to get preview.
How Blending mode works in After Effects
In simple word when blending mode is applied on a layer the look below the layer get changed. Generally blending modes change the color value and other blending mode such as silhouette and stencil change the alpha channels of the layer below it. Here is a quick mockup.
Blending Mode Preview
Below a visual preview a each blending mode you can find in After Effects
The normal blend mode is the default mode for a layer, which mean that there is no blending happening on any layers.
Dissolve mode change you layer transparency to grain / dots, the more transparent the less grain showing up. The dissolve mode can be useful when you want to add grain to a clean footage to simulate old style movie.
The Dancing dissolve mode create animated grain based of the gradient and transparency. This dancing dissolve mode is super helpful to create old style black and white movie background or sepia background. Unfortunately we can’t control the size of the grain or the speed of the animation, if you do need those control probably use the add grain in the Effect & Presets window.
The darken blend mode analyze the luminance of your layer, the brighter the luminance the more transparent it will be, the darker the color is the more it get opaque.
The multiply mode is widely use in After Effects to remove 100% white and make to whit completely transparent on your layer.
The color burn mode increase the contrast between the base and the blend colors, resulting in highly saturated mid-tones also also reduced highlight in the image.
Classic Color Burn is just the Color Burn mode from After Effects 5.0 and earlier. It is usually use to preserve the compatibility with older After Effects project.
The linear burn is similar to color burn, it has much less contrast and it decrease the brightness.
Here is a example of the darker color mode, where I have added a solid white going to plain black so you can see how the darker image of the color reveal. Basically each result pixel is the color of darker of the source color value and the corresponding underlying color value. The Darker Color mode is similar to Darken, but Darker Color does not operate on individual color channels.
The add mode use and highlight and luminance of the image and make the dark area more subtle. Generally the add mode increase the brightness and add the color values up.
The lighten mode keep the higher light values and remove the dark color. It is basically the reverse of the darken mode.
Screen blend mode remove pure black from your layer and make it transparent, other variation of gray become slightly transparent. White become opaque. The screen blend mode is the opposite of multiply mode.
The color dodge mode decrease contrast and use the color value to increase the light of the image. Color dodge is basically of opposite of Color Burn mode.
The Classic Color Dodge mode is for user who used Color dodge mode from After Effects 5.0 and earlier, It is used to preserve compatibility with older projects; Just use the regular Color Dodge if you use the current version on After Effects.
Linear Dodge Mode result of a lightning of source color with the increase of the brightness. When the image has a solid black the result color is the underlying color.
The lighter color mode keep and choose the lighter color on the source image, other darker colors are removed. Lighter Color is does a similar job as Lighten mode but lighter color does not operate on individual color channel.
The overlay mode is probably one of the blending mode you will use the most, as you can see on the left example it gives rich colors and emphasize your image colors. The Overlay mode also preserves the highlights and shadows of the underlying layer.
The Soft light mode is very similar to the overlay mode but with less emphasis on the color, it is basically a subtle overlay mode.
The hard light mode merge the multiply and screen mode by using the brightness channel values based on the blend layer it make its calculation. The hard light mode is useful for creating the appearance of shadows on a layer.
The linear light mode is a more intense setup compare to the hard light mode above, it burns or dodges the colors with the decrease or increase of the brightness. It also use the gray levels to apply to dodges or burn. Higher than 50% gray get you more of a burned darker look, and lower than 50% gray gives you a dodge very bright color.
The vivid light is an extreme version of linear light mode, the layer under the vivid light mode will have a very saturated and high contrast colors.
The Pin Light mode replace colors based of the gray level, The values between 50% and 80% gray get multiply. Pixels lighter than the underlying color are replaced, and pixels darker than the underlying color do not change.
The hard mix mode transform your image into 6 colors which give usually give an extreme look. This mode basically flatten details it creates a super saturated result. Generally the hard mix mode uses the primary colors red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.
The difference mode create an invert effect to the layer below it. This difference mode should be very useful in After Effects if you want to create a Photo negative style animation.
Classic difference mode is for user that used previous version of After Effects, it is just there to preserve compatibility of old projects and does exactly the same thing as the regular Difference mode.
The exclusion mode create a similar effect as the difference mode above but apply lower contrast.
The subtract mode make the color darker by subtracting the brightness. The lighter the area is the more it is dark, while the dark area are less affected and product less changes.
The Divide mode is the opposite of Subtract mode. The darker colors create brighter results, while bright and light areas make little to no change.
The Hue mode change the hues of the image while maintaining the saturation and tone of the original images.
The saturation mode preserve the hue and luminosity of the layer 1 and create the lowest saturation value for the underneath layer.
The color mode keep the luminosity of the original layer while using the hue and saturation of the blend layer. The color mode should be helpful for coloring monochromatic images.
The luminosity mode preserves the hue and saturation of the base layer while integrating the luminosity of the blend layer.
Stencil alpha create aninvert alpha channel, in the example on the left you notice that the text with stencil alpha mode become transparent to reveal the layer with the ink. Stencil Alpha also create a default black background.
Stencil Luma mode use the brightness of your layer as the alpha, the more white your layer is the more it will show the layer 2, the darker your layer is the more opaque it will show
The Silhouette Alpha Mode make your first layer completely transparent at 0% opacity. If you are using an image with the silhouette alpha mode make sure it has an alpha channel.
The Silhouette Luma Mode allow you to make a layer partially transparent base on the luminance, the white color will make 0% opacity to your layer, and black will make it to 100% which will make your layer be transparent and disappear. You get the idea base of the animation on the left.
In After Effects Alpha Add mode allow you to fix edges when you combine 2 mask together. In this example we have 2 mask that should not have any white edges a quick solution instead of moving the masks is to apply the alpha mask mode.
For those who have a bunch of time to read page and pages of blending mode details can always go to the Adobe After Effects blending mode website. Finally I hope you found this After Effects blending mode guide helpful, please drop a comment below if you have any concern or questions 🙂
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