Apple Motion 4 - Manual (Page 338)

The methods used by the Pin Light blend mode to mix two images are somewhat complex.
Overlapping midrange color values are treated differently depending on which of the
four regions of the luminance chart they fall into.
• Lighter and darker areas of the foreground image falling close to the whites and blacks
are preserved.
• Areas of the foreground image falling near the center of the midrange are tinted by
the background color.
• Darker areas of the foreground image in between the blacks and center of the midrange
are lightened.
• Lighter areas of the foreground image in between the whites and the center of the
midrange are darkened.
The end result may appear alternately tinted or solarized, depending on the lightness or
darkness of the overlapping values. This blend mode lends itself to more abstract effects.
The order of two objects affected by the Pin Light blend mode is important.
Boxes object on top Monkey object on top
Hard Mix
Hard Mix is similar to the Hard Light blend mode, except that the saturation of overlapping
midrange color values is intensified, resulting in extremely high-contrast images. Whites
and blacks are preserved.
338 Chapter 7 Basic Compositing