Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 172)

Normal category
Subtractive category
Additive category
Complex category
Difference category
HSL category
Matte category
Utility category
Note:
Normal
Dissolve
Normal, Dissolve, Dancing Dissolve. The result color of a pixel is not affected by the color of the underlying pixel unless Opacity
is less than 100% for the source layer. The Dissolve blending modes turn some of the pixels of the source layer transparent.
Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Classic Color Burn, Linear Burn, Darker Color. These blending modes tend to darken colors,
some by mixing colors in much the same way as mixing colored pigments in paint.
Add, Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Classic Color Dodge, Linear Dodge, Lighter Color. These blending modes tend to lighten
colors, some by mixing colors in much the same way as mixing projected light.
Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Linear Light, Vivid Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix. These blending modes perform different
operations on the source and underlying colors depending on whether one of the colors is lighter than 50% gray.
Difference, Classic Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, Divide. These blending modes create colors based on the differences
between the values of the source color and the underlying color.
Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity. These blending modes transfer one or more of the components of the HSL representation of
color (hue, saturation, and luminosity) from the underlying color to the result color.
Stencil Alpha, Stencil Luma, Silhouette Alpha, Silhouette Luma. These blending modes essentially convert the source layer into a
matte for all underlying layers.
The stencil and silhouette blending modes use either the alpha channel or luma values of a layer to affect the alpha channel of all layers beneath
the layer. Using these blending modes differs from using a track matte, which affects only one layer. Stencil modes cut through all layers, so that
you can, for example, show multiple layers through the alpha channel of the stencil layer. Silhouette modes block out all layers below the layer
with the blending mode applied, so you can cut a hole through several layers at once. To keep the silhouette and stencil blending modes from
cutting through or blocking all layers underneath, precompose the layers that you want to affect and nest them in your composition.
Chris and Trish Meyer explain stencil blending modes in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website .
Stencil (left) shows all layers below the stencil layer through the frame of the alpha channel of the stencil layer; silhouette (right) cuts a hole
through all layers below the silhouette layer.
Alpha Add, Luminescent Premul. These blending modes serve specialized utility functions.
Blending mode descriptions
In the following descriptions, these terms are used:
The source color is the color of the layer or paint stroke to which the blending mode is applied.
The underlying color is the color of the composited layers below the source layer or paint stroke in the layer stacking order in the Timeline
panel.
The result color is the output of the blending operation; the color of the composite.
Some color values in the following descriptions are given in terms of the 0.0-1.0 scale from black to white.
The result color is the source color. This mode ignores the underlying color. Normal is the default mode.
The result color for each pixel is either the source color or the underlying color. The probability that the result color is the source color
depends on the opacity of the source. If opacity of the source is 100%, then the result color is the source color. If opacity of the source is 0%,
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