To Cycle Through Blending Modes; About Mask Modes - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

Stencil (left) shows all layers below through the frame of the stencil layer's alpha channel; silhouette (right) cuts a hole through all layers below.
Click Switches/Modes at the bottom of the Timeline panel.
1
Click Normal to open the Mode menu for the layer you want to use as a stencil or silhouette, and then choose one
2
of the following:
Creates a stencil using the layer's alpha channel.
Stencil Alpha
Creates a stencil using the layer's luma values. The lighter pixels of the layer are more opaque than the
Stencil Luma
darker pixels.
Creates a silhouette using the layer's alpha channel.
Silhouette Alpha
Creates a silhouette using the layer's luma values. The lighter pixels of the layer are more trans-
Silhouette Luma
parent than the darker pixels.

To cycle through blending modes

You can quickly cycle through all the blending modes for a selected layer, making it easy to experiment with the
results that each mode has on the layer.
1 Select a layer in the Timeline panel.
Do one of the following:
2
•
Hold down Shift and press the plus key (+) to cycle forward through each blending mode.
•
Hold down Shift and press the underscore key (_) to cycle backward through each blending mode.

About mask modes

Blending modes for masks (mask modes) control how masks within a layer interact with one another. By default, all
masks are set to Add, which combines the transparency values of any masks that overlap on the same layer. You can
apply one mode to each mask, but you cannot change a mask's mode over time.
The first mask you create interacts with the layer's alpha channel. If that channel doesn't define the entire image as
opaque, then the mask interacts with the layer frame. Each additional mask you create interacts with masks located
above it in the Timeline panel outline. The results of mask modes vary depending on the modes set for the masks
higher up in the outline. You can use mask modes only between masks in the same layer.
Using mask modes, you can create complex mask shapes with multiple transparent areas. For example, you can set
a mask mode that combines two masks and sets the opaque area to the areas where the two masks intersect.
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