Colour Blending

Last Updated: 26 Jul 20

What is Colour Blending?

Whew, strap in folks, this one is a doozy. Blending or ‘Blend’ layers are transparency layers added to a base image to produce a different result. They mix opacity and fill values to produce different effects using a process called Alpha Compositing.

Whilst doing research, I came across a site that does a really good job of explaining how it works, so I’d like to give a shout out to the Photoshop Training Channel for their great content and useful resources.

To break it down to it’s simplest explanation, it is Base + Blend = Result.

Click on Image to go to the Photoshop Training Channel for the full tutorial

If you want to go down the rabbit hole and learn all the math (Because that is what it is at the end of the day) the Wikipedia Page on Blend Modes is full of useful info.

So what does all this have to do with Kisekae? Well it is used in a couple of functions, and it always helps to know how it works. The Functions that use it are found in:

Note that all images below are from the Kisekae 2 Wiki.

Colour Blending in Kisekae 2

Normal

Normal is the Default mode

Normal or Threshold mode edits or paints each pixel to make it the result colour. This is the default mode. 

Multiply

Multiplies the base colour by the blend colour

Multiply takes the color information in each channel and multiplies the Base Colour by the Blend Colour. The resulting colour is always darker. Multiplying any colour with Black will always produce Black.

Multiplying any colour with White leaves the color unchanged. When you’re painting with any other colour than black or white, each stroke with a painting tool can produce progressively darker colors. The effect is similar to drawing on the image with multiple marking pens. Cool, huh?

Screen

Multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors, so opposite to Multiply..?

Screen looks at each channel’s Colour information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. The resulting colour is always lighter. Screening with Black leaves the colour unchanged. Screening with White produces White. The effect is similar to projecting multiple Photographic slides over top each other.

Lighten

Removes darker colours

Lighten takes a look at the Colour information in each channel and selects the Base or Blend colour (whichever is lightest) as the resulting colour. Pixels darker than the Blend colour are replaced, and pixels lighter than the Blend colour don’t change.

Darken

Removes lighter colours

Darken looks at the Colour information in each channel and selects the Base or Blend colour (whichever is darkest) as the resulting colour. Pixels lighter than the Blend colour are replaced, and the pixels darker than the Blend colour don’t change.

Difference

Choses the Brightest Value

Difference takes the information in each channel and subtracts either the Blend colour from the Base colour, or the Base colour from the Blend colour.

This depends on which has the greatest Brightness value. Blending with White inverts the Base colour, and blending with Black causes no change.

Add

Brightens the Base colour

Add, or Linear Dodge takes the Colour information in each channel and brightens the Base colour to reflect the Blend colour by increasing the brightness. Blending with black makes no change.

Subtract

Subtracts the Blend colour from the Base colour

Subtract looks at the Colour in each channel and Subtracts the Blend colour from the Base colour. Simple?

Overlay

Multiplies or Screens, depending on the Base colours

Overlay Multiplies or Screens the colours, depending on the Base colour. Colours overlay the existing pixels, whilst preserving the Highlights and Shadows of the Base colour.

The Base colour is not replaced, but mixed with the Blend colour to reflect the lightness or darkness of the original colour.

Hardlight

Multiplies or Screens, depending on the Blend colours

Hardlight Multiplies or Screens, depending on the Blend colour. The effect is similar to shining a saturated spotlight on the image.

If the Blend colour (or light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened (Screened). This is useful for adding highlights to an image.

If the Blend colour is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened (Multiplied). This is useful for adding shadows to an image. Painting with pure black or white results in pure black or white.

So, that’s it. Colour Blending in Kisekae 2. I hope you found this informative, and watch out for more Tutorials as I add them to the library.