9 Blending Modes

One of the most creative tools After Effects offers is mixing images together using blending modes

We devoted the previous chapters to stacking multiple objects and moving them around in interesting ways. The next level of motion graphics mastery is combining multiple images together to create an utterly new image. And blending modes (also known as modes, layer modes or transfer modes) are some of the simplest, yet most tasteful tools for doing so. In this chapter, we’ll break down the method behind mode madness, and share a few of our favorite techniques for using them in real-world projects. We’ll also cover the two new modes addes in After Effects CS5.

If you use Photoshop or a recent video editing program, you’re probably ...

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