5.1.1

Table Of Contents
Chapter 7 Basic compositing 228
Change a layers opacity
Do one of the following:
m Adjust the Opacity slider in the Blending section of the Properties Inspector.
m Adjust the Opacity slider in the HUD.
Note: Some layers, such as text and shapes, have additional opacity parameters in their
respective panes in the Inspector. For example, setting a shape’s Opacity value in the Properties
pane and setting its Opacity value in the Style pane require separate controls that have
multiplicative eects. In other words, if Opacity is set to 50% in the Properties pane, then set to
50% in the Shape Style pane, the resulting opacity for the text is 25%.
For information on limiting overlapping layers’ visibility or selectively revealing a part of a layer,
see Preserve Opacity option on page 228.
Preserve Opacity option
The Preserve Opacity checkbox in the Properties Inspector lets you limit a layers visibility to
areas of the Canvas where the layer overlaps nontransparent regions of other layers. For example,
you might place two overlapping layers into your project, as shown below:
If you select Preserve Opacity for the Dolphin layer in front, the result is this:
The only area of the Dolphin layer visible is the area that overlaps the sea life picture
layer behind it. At rst, this might not appear to be very exciting, but the Preserve Opacity
checkbox can be used in combination with the opacity and blend mode to create some very
interesting eects.
Note: The layer with the enabled Preserve Opacity parameter takes the opacity value of the layer
beneath it in the composite stack.
67% resize factor