• Adobe After Effects

  Multiple Blending Modes

  Posted by Elric Robichon on July 28, 2009 at 12:11 am

  Hi and help, everyone !
  Long-time browser, first-time poster…

  Here’s the situation :

  I created a soap bubble in Photoshop. I’m sure it’s not the best solution, but for best results the Bubble is composed of 3 layers (shadows, highlights, and oil-like reflection), each with a different blending mode.

  Now.

  When I bring the .psd as a composition in After Effects, the transparency of each layer (and its blending mode) is preserved as long as I stay in this composition. But when I try to pre-comp those layers, to bring them as one in a new comp, the blending mode is reset to normal, and I CAN’T apply a new and satisfying blending mode because, you know, I need 3 blending modes.

  

  Is there a trick to keep several blending modes when you do a pre-comp ?
  Or do I have to go back on the drawing table, and try to obtain the same result with only ONE blending mode for the 3 layers ?
  Is it clear ?

  T.H.A.N.K.S. in advance !

  Stuart Elith replied 16 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Stuart Elith

  July 28, 2009 at 2:54 am

  Yep, you can do this… you need to leave the precomp on the Normal blending mode, and activate the Collapse Transformations switch, which kind of passes the precomp attributes such as vector text, 3D layers, and blending modes, through to the main comp.

  Read about it in the online help if you need more details 🙂
• 

  Elric Robichon

  July 28, 2009 at 1:34 pm

  Thanks a lot, my use of the switch was a little bit anarchic, I guess.
  But that was only the first part of the problem : the other half is about Trapcode Particular 2, to generate a rain of bubbles with the Sprite option.
  I scanned the whole manual, and couldn’t find anything related to that “keep transparency” switch. The only option is the simple “transfer Mode” that lets you choose only one blending mode at a time.
  Thanks in advance, thanks again.
• 

  Stuart Elith

  July 29, 2009 at 12:23 am

  Ahh right, well that’s a very different problem. Not sure if you can solve that one very easily… certainly, I don’t think Particular respects that Collapse Transformations switch.

  One option may be to make your particular bubbles with the original image, then precomp that and have 2 instances of it, one with each of the blending modes you need. Then the blending is done in the final comp rather than the precomp, so they should work. I think..?

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