#blend modes

[categorised-art-tutorials-tips]

Blend Mode Types for Digital Art Drawing (Procreate, Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, Fresco, MediBang, etc)

Credit: Procreate Handbook

[jaeharuart]

Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint's Blend Mode Differences Explained

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JaeHaruArt?fan_landing=true

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jaeharuart

[pharanbrush]

hi there! your multiply layer math guide is a life-saver!! would you ever consider doing something similar for overlay or 'light-adding' layers?

I'm glad you found it useful! I still want to rewrite it to be clearer for more people.

(here's the original post for other people reading: https://pharanbrush.tumblr.com/post/704602434836791296/in-2019-i-wrote-a-practical-but-boring-blog-post)

As for light-adding layers, what did you have in mind?

Honestly, a lot of the other blend modes are "simple" but doing the reverse to undo their effects can get messy and unreliable. The rest are just not simple.

Divide just happens to be the exact opposite of Multiply.

Likewise, you would use Subtract as the opposite of Add (also known as Linear Dodge).

Overlay literally splits the darker half of the colors as Multiply and the lighter half as Screen, and does a weird parkour backflip with the layers (metaphorically).

Wikipedia actually lists the layer mode math clearly:

But it takes some sitting down and working out the steps to do stuff more complicated than reversing multiply or add. And after the work, there's no guarantee that there's a simple way to do it in your art program with layers. I tried it with the Normal blend mode and you end up with a lot of guesswork for colors and a bunch of folders and layers.

Krita has a crazy number of layer blend modes but I haven't looked into their usefulness for undoing/reversing colors.

[amalgamgooze]

the enigma of (art) blend modes, and how doing brain research taught me how to better utilize them

(DISCLAIMER--I'm not actually going in-depth on different blend modes; there's other resources for that sort of thing! Rather, I'm just planning on talking about how they've been captivating to me in the past.)

I've been working with digital art programs for quite some time now, mostly for my game development pursuits, but also more recently just for fun.

Whatever program I'm using, be it Aseprite, Krita, or Paint.net, there's always this goofy little feature referred to as "blend modes". Really, all it refers to is how new colors should be made when two colors overlap on an image--particularly from different layers.

Back when I was young and naive, those layer blend modes hardly did more than just exist. Maybe I'd pull down that drop-down menu and switch around the modes every once in a while, but this was never used to help me during the creation process.

There's something about starting to use a new art program and getting overwhelmed by all the buttons on the UI. Of course, it takes time to master those menus, but when you do, it's nothing short of rewarding.

Which brings me to one of the most interesting programs I've worked with: Fiji.

Fiji isn't an art program--it's anything but. Instead, it's open source image processing software, designed for life science related analyses.

I've had the (mis)fortune of becoming acquainted with this software through my internship. When it was introduced to me last year, it was... overwhelming, to say the least.

This is what it looks like when you open it:

Not too overwhelming yet, right? Wrong. Here's what the dropdown menu for "Analyze" looks like.

(I like how it starts with normal sounding words, before devolving into things like "Helmholtz Analysis" and "Multi Kymograph".)

If any of you are already super-mega-brain-nerds and know how to utilize all of these options, then good for you, I suppose. For the vast majority of the people who are unacquainted with neuroscience (such as myself), however, this is INCREDIBLY daunting to navigate. Imagine something just as confusing as this for the other menus.

Hell, even just importing imaging data proves labyrinthine:

Okay. I'm done fussing over how convoluted Fiji's menus are.

I've worked with them for long enough to understand them a little better, though I still couldn't tell you what half the buttons do.

...like most of the art programs I use.

Yes, I've used Paint.NET since, like, 2018. No, I still have no idea what the "Clone Stamp" button does.

(by the way, if you're still using Paint.NET yourself for art, 1. what are you doing, and 2. Krita is much better for what I needed from an art program, so I might recommend trying that out if Paint.NET is getting on your nerves!)

Anyway, loading imaging data into Fiji usually gives you a video you can pan through. Most imaging data usually either represents a z-series, t-series, or both.

A z-series is imaging done on several layers of the subject's brain at a single time point, to create a 3D stack of images with time substituting for the depth into the brain.

On the other hand, a t-series is imaging done (usually) on a single layer of the brain throughout several time points. (Data I've worked with has ranged from 15-minute-long t-series to 100-minute-long t-series.) This again creates a 3D stack, though this time, time represents, well, time. (This is how most video is stored--even if the video itself is 2-dimensional, you're still "technically" viewing 2D slices of a 3D stack--though only super-nerds call video 3D.)

A zt-series can also be imaged by making several z-series over time, which can be processed into a 4D video. (Usually, though, the slices have to be processed through software to order them properly.)

Last year, I worked with zt-series a lot. This year, however, I've got easier work--I'm just working with t-series this time, to analyze calcium activity.

They're nicer to work with, to say the least. I've worked on automating the collection of calcium activity data by comparing the minimum and maximum values of each pixel throughout the whole t-series in order to determine where there's potentially calcium activity happening.

...in fact, once you get an image of the minimum and maximum values of each pixel across the whole t-series, you then work with those images as layers and use different functions to extract a mask that shows only potential calcium activity regions.

...

So it's adjacent to blend modes in a way.

Specifically the "Multiply" and "Divide" modes.

...

It's a bit of a stretch, of course, but working with these black-and-white images has helped me better grasp what's going on under the cover when I use those same blend modes for art.

Of course, I'm not using them masterfully yet. Really, I'm just using them to add blocky-ish shading to translucent objects.

...I'd show an example, but I can't find any pictures right now.

...

Sorry about the tangent.

I just feel like somehow this contributes to the intimate interconnectivity of everything.

Art and brain research being related on a software level.

[midnightfire830]

(A totally out of context question) As a digital artist, what blending mode do you often use?

Depends on what I’m using the layer for.

Oftentimes I’ll use blend modes only for my lighting and shading layers. I’ll use “Add” for lighting (usually some kind of gradient of yellow) then use a masking layer to erase away from spots that are supposed to be dark.

For my shading I use “Multiply” and color with a dark blue.

Of course there are always exceptions to this. And sometimes I’ll use different settings depending on the scene (the recent Little Nightmares comic being a good example).

I also use add when shading eyes. Especially if said eyes are supposed to be glowing (like for bendy or cuphead) plus the multiply later to shade in pupils.

[vermillianno]

Trying out various effects using blend modes.

[cailaventog]

These are what each blend mode on Procreat does!

you know what? /puts them into normal clothes/

[digitalartform]

Playing around with simple encryption and decryption using blend modes.

[otaku553]

Luffy week day 3:

Sleep/Sunflower

[marywoodartdept]

Summer Design Series - Concert Poster Design

As the summer winds down and students ready to return to campus, Melissa, our graphic design blogger, is taking time out to design a set of posters for her dorm room this fall. Follow along her process and final output #GraphicDesign #MarywoodArt

[ultimatefartwizard]

Nightshade found a trailcam and wanted to say hello!

As for Alex, well... he got a bit startled LMAO

(might adjust some hues in the upper image for fun or later edits)

[cut-aare]

Franmaya nation rise!!!!

[nephilimbrute]

she came to me in a dream...💭

[itseghost]

i almost want to do an expression sheet for him so i force myself to expand past his rbf. but its so easy and fun to draw him with one

[nonymous06]

A bunch of Aleheather stuff yipeee

I adore them far too much

Also a greyscale experiment with our boy :]

[elkkiel]

Worship. Appreciate. Perhaps scritch under his chin. Any offering will suffice.

happy (very late) black cat appreciation day! today I am thankful for my darling nyassel + my own (mostly) black kitty 🩷🐈‍⬛