Layering and blending
Clips over clips on V2 and up: opacity, blend modes, fades, speed, reverse, disable and mute.
A clip on V2 or above plays over everything below it. The clip inspector (right of the timeline) and the clip's right-click menu set how it mixes in.
Description
The AI trailer, with a title card on V2 over the shot on V1. Clicking the title opens it in the clip inspector: its opacity is dragged down to about 70%, its blend mode set to Hard light, and a fade in added, while the program monitor shows the title mixing into the footage.
- Click a clip on V2 or above. The inspector shows its track, its kind and its name.
- Drag Opacity. 100% covers what's below; less lets it through.
- Pick a Blend mode: Screen to lift light footage over dark, Multiply to darken through, Overlay for contrast.
- Drag Fade in and Fade out (in ms) to fade it from and to nothing.
- Drag Speed (10–400%) to play it slower or faster: its length changes to match. Tick Play backwards to reverse it.
The same settings are in its right-click menu: Opacity (100, 75, 50, 25%), Blend, Fades (Fade in and out 0.5s, Fade in, Fade out), Speed (25% to 400%) and Play backwards.
Blend modes
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Normal | The clip covers what's below, at its opacity |
| Multiply | Darkens: white disappears, black stays |
| Screen | Lightens: black disappears, white stays. Light leaks, flares, titles on black |
| Overlay | Multiply in the darks, Screen in the lights: contrast |
| Darken | Keeps the darker of the two |
| Lighten | Keeps the lighter of the two |
| Color dodge | Brightens what's below by the clip |
| Color burn | Darkens what's below by the clip |
| Hard light | Overlay led by the clip |
| Soft light | A gentler Hard light |
| Difference | Subtracts one from the other |
| Exclusion | A softer Difference |
The agent and the CLI can also use HUE, SATURATION, COLOR and LUMINOSITY.
Disable or mute a clip
- Shift+E, the inspector's Enabled box or the menu's Disable clip leaves a clip in place but out of the picture and the export (it dims on the timeline). On V1 the time stays; the scene just shows nothing.
- Mute its sound in the menu leaves out a scene's own sound (a video's audio) and keeps the picture.
Reference: the clip inspector
| Clip | Settings |
|---|---|
| A scene on V1 | Transition, its Length and Curve, Centre X and Centre Y for the transitions that grow from a point (not on the first scene), Enabled, Edit this scene's animation |
| A clip on V2 and up | Opacity, Blend, Fade in, Fade out, Speed, Play backwards, Enabled, Edit this scene's animation |
| An audio clip | Volume, Pan, Fade in, Fade out, Fade shape, Mute, Loop, Crossfade into …, Detect onsets, Cut to the beat |
Every clip has Delete and Ripple delete at the bottom. With nothing picked, the inspector lists the main keys.