Thread: Creating Symbols:- Blend Modes

Blend Modes in Flash helps in creating composite images. Compositing means the way by which the transparency or color interaction of two or more objects that are overlapped varies considerably. By using the blend modes, unique effects can be created. The effects can be created in two ways.
• Different colors blend in overlapping movie clips to create the effects.
• A dimension of control is added to the opacity of images and objects.

The blend modes in Flash serve a number of other purposes too. The blend modes are useful in highligh lighting the details of an underlying image by creating either shadows or highlights. A desaturated image can also be made colorful by applying
blend modes. There are different elements that a blending mode consists. They are Blend: Normal Blend Color, Opacity, Base Color and the Result Color.

Blend Color can be defined as the color which is applied to the blend mode. A blend mode has some degree of transparency. This is known as the Opacity of the Blend Mode. Base Color stands for the color of pixels present beneath the
blend color. The resultant color on the base color due to the blend effect is
known as the Result Color. Two things should be remembered while applying blend mode on any object in Flash The two things that matter is the color of the object and the underlying color. It is very essential to understand the nature of these two colors in order to create the right effect. For this it is necessary to experiment With the various types of Blend modes that are available in Flash.

Types of Blend Modes
The various blend modes that can be apphed are:
Normal: This blend mode helps in applying color normally. The base colors mode do not interact in the process of application.
Layer: The blending of color takes place normally in this blend mode too. However, the blend object is pre composited at an opacity of 100% before the blending takes place. By doing this, the subchps of the blend object are restricted from blending through one another.
Darken: This blend mode is used to replace certain areas which are compara tively lighter than the blend color. The areas which are darker than the color,remains unchanged.

Multiply: The multiply blend mode in flash in creating darker colors. This is done by multiplymg the base color by the blend color.
Lighten: Lighten blend mode helps in the replacement of only those pixels which are darker than the blend color. Areas which are lighter compared to the blend color remains unchanged.
Screen: The use of this blend mode in Flash helps in creating a bleaching effect. This is done by multiplying the inverse of the blend color by the base color.
Overlay: This blend mode in Flash multiplies or screens the colors. The multiplying or screening of the colors however depends on the base colors.
Hard Light:-The Hard Light Blend mode in Flash is useful in multiplying or screening the colors. The multiplying or screening of the colors however depends on the blend mode color. The effectcreated by using this blend mode resembles that of a Spotlight shining over an object.
Difference : The difference blend mode helps in subtracting the blend color from the base color or just the opposite. The subtraction howeverdepends upon the greater brightness value of either the blend color or the base color. The effect that is created is similar to that of a color negative.
Invert: This blend mode can be used in 'Flash to invert the base color.
Alpha: This blend mode helps in applying an alpha mask in Flash.
Erase: The Erase blend mode can be used to remove all the base color pixels. This blending mode can also be used to remove the pixels present in the background image. lt should however be noted that the Erase and Alpha blend modes can only be applied to a parent movie clip if a blend mode apart from Normal is already applied on it.

lt is very easy to apply blend mode to a movie clip in Flash. The blend modes in Flash can be applied from the Properties Inspector. This can be done by following certain simple steps in Flash.
1. First, select the movie clip instance present on the Stage.
2. Now, make adjustments in the transparency and color values of the movie clip instance.
3. This can be done from the Color menu in the Properties Inspector.
4. In the Properties Inspector. clcik on the Blend option.
5. From the drop down menu. choose the desired blend made option.
6. The blend mode gets applied on the movie clip instance. The change can be seen instantly.
However, the correct type of blend mode should be chosen so that it matches the effect perfectly.