Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 173)

AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
168
Exclusion Creates a result similar to but lower in contrast than the Difference mode. If the source color is white, the
result color is the complement of the underlying color. If the source color is black, the result color is the underlying
color.
Hue Result color has luminance and saturation of the underlying color, and the hue of the source color.
Saturation Result color has luminance and hue of the underlying color, and the saturation of the source color.
Color Result color has luminance of the underlying color, and hue and saturation of the source color. This preserves
the gray levels in the underlying color. This is useful for coloring grayscale image and for tinting color images.
Luminosity Result color has hue and saturation of the underlying color, and luminance of the source color. This
mode is the opposite of the Color mode.
Stencil Alpha Creates a stencil using the layer’s alpha channel.
Stencil Luma Creates a stencil using the layer’s luma values. The lighter pixels of the layer are more opaque than the
darker pixels.
Silhouette Alpha Creates a silhouette using the layer’s alpha channel.
Silhouette Luma Creates a silhouette using the layer’s luma values. Creates transparency in painted areas of the layer,
allowing you to see underlying layers or background. The luminance value of the blend color determines opacity in
the result color. The lighter pixels of the source cause more transparency than the darker pixels. Painting with pure
white creates 0% opacity. Painting with pure black produces no change.
Alpha Add Composites layers normally, but adds complementary alpha channels to create a seamless area of trans-
parency. Useful for removing visible edges from two alpha channels that are inverted relative to each other or from
the alpha channel edges of two touching layers that are being animated.
Luminescent Premul Prevents clipping of color values that exceed the alpha channel value after compositing by
adding them to the composition. Useful for compositing rendered lens or light effects (such as lens flare) from
footage with premultiplied alpha channels. May also improve results when compositing footage from other manufac-
turers’ matting software. When applying this mode, you may get the best results by changing interpretation of the
premultiplied-alpha source footage to straight alpha.
Layer styles
About layer styles
Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a
layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles when importing Photoshop layers. You can also apply layer styles
in After Effects and animate their properties.
In addition to the layer styles that add visual elements—like a drop shadow or a color overlay—each layer’s Layer
Styles property group contains a Blending Options property group. You can use the Blending Options settings for
powerful and flexible control over blending operations.
Though layer styles are referred to as effects in Photoshop, they behave more like blending modes in After Effects.
Layer styles follow transformations in the standard render order, whereas effects precede transformations. Another
difference is that each layer style blends directly with the underlying layers in the composition, whereas an effect is
rendered on the layer to which it’s applied, the result of which then interacts with the underlying layers as a whole.