Blend Modes alter the way your clips interact with each other and offer interesting ways to composite foreground clips into background clips.
I'm using the Effects workspace.
You can double-click on the workspace name to reset it.
In my sequence, I've got two groups of clips.
So, I'll click the eye to toggle track output for V2 show you the clips on V1.
Now, I'll turn visibility back on so you can see the clips on V2, which I want to blend into the background shots on V1.
The second clip on V2 fades up onto the background, but it quickly takes over the frame when the Cross Dissolve ends.
I want to composite these two shots, so the images will interact in a new way.
With my playhead over the first clip in the sequence, I'll select the clip on V2, then go to the Effect Controls panel to apply a Blend Mode.
Blend Modes live under the Opacity controls.
To narrow my choices and save time when choosing a Blend Mode from the drop-down menu, it helps me to categorize these as darkening modes, like these five from Darken to Darker Color.
And lightning modes like these, from lighten through Hard Mix.
This next group also combines pixels in ways that darken the image.
Sometimes in very intense ways.
And this final group of 4 work more with color blending.
Some of these choices give pretty dramatic looks.
Selecting Normal from the list returns your V2 clip to a fully opaque state.
Normal is the default Blend Mode for every clip.
Because I'm using footage with bubbles, which are all about the highlights, I'll experiment with lightning modes.
When combining images like these two, a well-lit shot of a face and a lightly colored shot of bubbles in the sky.
I'm a big fan of using the Overlay Mode.
This mode uses patterns and colors to overlay pixels from the affected clip on V2 while preserving highlights and shadows from the background image.
But this time, the results are a bit too intense for what I have in mind.
So, I'll try my other go-to Blend Mode, Soft Light.
I really like the natural-looking results of this combination.
Of course, changes to the color or brightness of either of these two shots could result in a very different Blend Mode outcome.
Now, I'll move to the second stack of clips in my Timeline.
You can see I've offset the clip on V2 and applied a Cross Dissolve, so it fades up onto the background image.
I want these animated bubbles to blend with and ultimately replace the background shot.
I'll select the clip on V2 and put my playhead over both clips.
Now, I'll apply the Lighten Blend Mode from the drop-down menu in the Effect Controls panel.
That works, but I'll try another mode called Color Dodge.
Color Dodge preserves even more of the highlights and seems to be adding and blending brightness values from each clip.
Whatever it's doing mathematically, it added a wonderful glow to the look.
Since the bubbles in the background clip on V1 are coming from the bottom right corner, just for fun, I'll select the animation on V2 and drag over the Rotation value in the Effect Controls panel to make the animated bubbles come in from roughly the same location.
I'll adjust the Scale value too, so the bubble action fills the frame.
This is both a science and an art.
So, it takes some experimentation to create the right look, but Blend Modes make compositing fun.
