Blending Modes: Broken Down

Blending modes are the way that layers can be combined. Usually used when they are overlapping each other, blending modes change the way layers interact with each other. Each blending mode is a different mathematical equation for how colors are combined.
There are 27 blending modes organized into 7 groups:

• Normal
• Normal
• Dissolve
• Darken
• Darken
• Multiply
• Color Burn
• Linear Burn
• Darken Color
• Lighten
• Lighten
• Screen
• Color Dodge
• Linear Dodge (add)
• Lighten Color
• Contrast
• Overlay
• Soft Light
• Hard Light
• Vivid Light
• Linear Light
• Pin Light
• Hard Mix
• Inversion
• Difference
• Exclusion
• Cancelation
• Subtract
• Divide
• Component
• Hue
• Saturation
• Color
• Luminosity

Basically, blend modes in the same group do similar things to the way pixels are blended together. 

Interesting to note, the Lighten and Darken blend mode groups do the exact opposite option of the other:

I've found a couple of images that help demonstrate different blend modes:

Unfortunately, it's always a challenge to really know how two colors will interact, so my suggestion is to always just keep guessing till it looks right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For more information see:photoblogstop.com

Star Wars meets Dragon Ball Z

So growing up, some my favorites movies were the original Star Wars Triology and one my favorite TV shows was Dragon Ball Z.  So why not combine them.  What other way to do this than with After Effects right?



I think that they did a pretty good job with the graphics, but like most instances where two good things are combined, the story line suffers (there is no story). Here is a perfect example of two cool things combining to suck:


Not only does the story line suck in this one but the graphics do as well.  For everyone who just watched this I am sorry.  Chances are your IQ just dropped 10 points.