Hello, all. Speaking of Pinnacle Studio 24 Pro. New user here.

I have been going through all the settings, the manual, and trying to find a sensible answer online, but have failed to do so.

My question is this - does this application truly lack the standard transparency overlay modes, such as Additive, Subtractive, Multiply, Dodge, etc??? 

For example, the flame filter is quite amusing, but flames are rarely without additive brightness. So is there some way to achieve that? Either a direct way to change the overlay on the effect or a way to add that to a layer where the flame effect is placed on a dark background, for example.

Thank you in advance. 

Hi and welcome to this forum.

No there is not : http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/805076.aspx

Thanks a lot for the reply. Good to be sure. Somehow my search did not show that topic.

Quite enjoying the overall interface and workflow. But wow, that is really unexpected to lack blend modes in 2021.

Hopefully that is something that could eventually be added. 

In PS24 you can add a mask.  You can set the transparency for the item inside and outside the mask.

ydobemos:

But wow, that is really unexpected to lack blend modes in 2021.

I'm sure most users of Studio don't even know what it is. So where could be the lack for them ?

I believe that, sure. But it seems like the product is being marketed as somewhat "near pro" level video editing platform, with all those other features that 99% of the users here probably won't use. Such as 3D video editing or 360 degree video editing, more serious color correction features etc.

It is just strange that it is missing such a basic, yet important feature that, I believe nearly all other reasonably serious video editing applications have. 

I totally agree. Even if not many folks may know for what purpose to use blend modes, they are really handy for composite shots. Take for instance an .mp4 file with light leaks, lens flares or any other overlay with black background. With blending modes you can easily block out the black background by using a blending mode such as 'screen'.

Of course you can use the PS luma key but the controls are rather awkward and quite often the result shows traces of the black background and/or details in the overlay object are lost. 

Fortunately, recent versions of PS allow for .mov files with transparency channel but quite often overlays are only available as video files without transparency.  

I brought this same subject up last year.  http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/806350.aspx

 

I'm begining to suspect that as Pinnacle are selling more and more Overlay FX and they aren't cheap), and use the less common Cineform Codec for transparency, they might not be interested in allowing the proper use of free transparency video clips....

Well, many (if not most) high-end overlays come as .mp4 files. But you might be right, the new overlay category in the library and the new offerings of overlays do not bode well for the introduction of blend modes any time soon. Yet, blend modes are also useful for other compositing jobs.

Can mp4 files hold transparency info? ProRes can as can AVI, but mp4?

Perhaps I wasn't clear. All these .mp4 overlay files have no transparency and have a black background. That's why it would be so useful to have blending modes in PS.

Hilltops:

Perhaps I wasn't clear. All these .mp4 overlay files have no transparency and have a black background. That's why it would be so useful to have blending modes in PS.

...and if you could, there would be no motivation to buy Pinnale's own overlays ;-)

I'm not really sure if that's true because both options are very useful. I use another app in which I render .mp4 overlays but also purchased a number of Corel's overlays.