Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 462

Several factors can affect the apparent color of the grain that these effects generate, including the following:
• The color value of the underlying pixel in the source image.
• The Saturation value of the noise.
• The Tint Color and Tint Amount values, if you have modified these from the defaults.
• The Blending Mode value in the Application controls group.
• The amount of noise applied, if any, to each channel individually using the Channel Intensities controls group.
Using the Color controls group in the Effect Controls panel, you can adjust any of the following:
Gives the added noise a single tint. By default, the tones are black and white, but you can change the
Monochromatic
Tint Color to make it a gradient of any color. (The Saturation and Channel Intensities controls aren't available if
Monochromatic is selected.)
Controls the depth and intensity of the color shift.
Tint Amount
Controls the color the added noise shifts toward.
Tint Color
Controls the amount and vividness of the color.
Saturation
The Blending Mode in the Application controls determines how the color value of the generated noise combines with
the color value of the underlying source layer at each pixel:
Makes the generated grain appear embedded in the image. This mode affects darker colors more than lighter
Film
ones, just as the grain in a film negative appears.
Multiplies the color values of the noise and the source. However, the result may be either lighter or darker
Multiply
than the original, because the noise may have either a positive or negative value.
Combines the color values of the pixel in the source with the noise. However, the result isn't always lighter than
Add
the original because the noise created by grain effects can have either a positive or negative value.
Multiplies the inverse brightness values of the noise and the source. The effect is like printing from a multiple
Screen
exposure on a negative. The result is always brighter than the original.
Combines the behavior of Film and Multiply: Both shadows and highlights get less grain, while midtones
Overlay
get a full application of grain.
Add Grain effect
The Add Grain effect generates new noise from nothing and does not take samples from existing noise. Instead, a
number of parameters and presets for different types of film can be used to synthesize many different types of noise
or grain. You can modify virtually every characteristic of this noise, control its color, apply it to the image in several
ways, even animate it or apply it selectively to only a part of your image.
This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Original (left), and with effect applied (right)
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 456
User Guide