The Layers Panel
The Layers panel — its rows and badges, the action row, the New menu, every per-layer property, and the thirteen blend modes.
Reference
- Panel
- Layers
- Menu
- Layer ▸ Show Layers
The Layers panel lists every layer, group, sub-layer and mask in the shot, and carries the controls for whichever of them is currently selected. It opens from the menu bar at Layer ▸ Show Layers.
The panel's default size is 236 × 420 points, with a minimum of 200 × 160. Docked, it shows the layer controls alone. Floating, it presents three sections: Layers, Surface and Grid transform.
Layout
The panel reads top to bottom in three parts.
- The active target's controls, above the stack — the blend mode and opacity of whatever is selected.
- The row list — every layer, with its group headers, masks and sub-layers.
- The action row, a single row of buttons along the bottom.
The active target
The controls at the top of the panel and the buttons in the action row always drive the same thing: the active target. It resolves in a fixed order — group, then mask, then sub-layer, then layer. A selected folder wins over a mask, a mask wins over a sub-layer, and a sub-layer wins over the main layer. The action row therefore always acts on the target whose settings are on screen.
What appears depends on the target:
| Target | Header | Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Group | <name> (folder) | Opacity, blend mode, Ungroup |
| Mask | Mask · <layer name> | The invert toggle only — no opacity, no blend mode |
| Sub-layer | <name> settings | Opacity, blend mode, Masked by |
| Layer | <name> settings | Opacity, blend mode, Masked by |
Masked by is documented with the other masking controls in Masks and groups.
Per-layer properties
Scales the layer's alpha as it composites over the scene below. Available on layers, groups and sub-layers; a mask has none.
How the layer's colour combines with the scene below. The menu carries no separate text caption — it displays the name of the current mode. The same thirteen modes are offered for layers, sub-layers and groups. See the table below.
Hides the layer from the composite entirely. The eye button carries no text label. On a group header the eye hides the whole folder; on a mask row the eye enables or disables the mask rather than hiding a layer.
The layer's position along the depth axis, and so its place in the composite. This control lives
in the Surface section rather than beside the opacity — see
the drawing surface. A new plane layer is created 40 units in
front of the frontmost existing layer. The layer's row shows the depth as a whole number;
camera-space layers show 2D instead, having no scene depth.
There is no per-layer lock. The only read-only state in the application is the canvas itself while the Effect Controls panel is open; see Read-only state below.
Blend modes
Thirteen modes are available, and the list is identical for layers, sub-layers and groups. Each is applied per channel to straight (unpremultiplied) colour, combining the backdrop — everything already composited below — with the source, the layer being composited.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
Normal | The source replaces the backdrop, scaled by opacity. The default. |
Multiply | Multiplies source and backdrop. The result is never lighter than either input, so it darkens; white leaves the backdrop unchanged. |
Screen | Multiplies the inverses. The result is never darker than either input, so it lightens; black leaves the backdrop unchanged. |
Overlay | Multiplies where the backdrop is dark and screens where it is light, keyed on the backdrop. Raises contrast around mid-grey. |
Soft Light | A gentle contrast shift keyed on the source: source values below 0.5 darken the backdrop, above 0.5 lighten it, with a smooth rolloff near black and white. |
Hard Light | The same math as Overlay, keyed on the source instead of the backdrop. Harsher than Soft Light. |
Color Dodge | Brightens the backdrop in proportion to the source. A source at full drives the result to white; a black backdrop stays black. |
Color Burn | Darkens the backdrop in proportion to the source. A source at zero drives the result to black; a white backdrop stays white. |
Add (Linear Dodge) | Adds source to backdrop and clips at white. Brighter than Screen and prone to clipping. |
Darken | Keeps the darker of source and backdrop, per channel. |
Lighten | Keeps the lighter of source and backdrop, per channel. |
Difference | The absolute difference between source and backdrop. Identical colours produce black. |
Subtract | Subtracts the source from the backdrop and clips at black. |
The action row
One row of buttons along the bottom of the panel. Every action in the panel lives here — the rows themselves carry only read-only indicators.
Moves the active target toward the front of the panel. Disabled for a mask, which cannot be reordered.
Moves the active target toward the back of the panel. Disabled for a mask.
Opens the New menu, below.
Copies the active layer and inserts the copy directly above it, named <name> copy, then
makes the copy active. This button always acts on the active layer, even when a sub-layer, mask
or group is the resolved target.
Opens or closes the Effect Controls panel for the target. Pressing it again with the same target closes the panel. Disabled for a mask, which has no effect stack. The button is tinted when this target's editor is open, and shaded when the target merely has effects on it.
Deletes the active target. The hint reads Delete mask, Delete sub-layer or Delete layer to
match. Masks and sub-layers can always be deleted; a layer can only be deleted while more than
one layer remains, since the stack is never empty. When a group is the target this button
deletes the active layer, not the folder — a folder is emptied with Ungroup.
Duplicate does not carry every property
Duplicate layer copies the strokes, sub-layers, mask, mask link, opacity, blend mode, group membership and effect stack. It does not carry the layer's warp, puppet rig, camera-space offset, scale or rotation, volume, or draw-on state, and a duplicated sub-layer loses its own effect stack. Duplicating an adjustment layer produces an ordinary layer. Where you have invested work in any of these, expect to rebuild it on the copy.
The New menu
Opened from the + button. Items appear in this order, separated into groups.
A layer in scene space. See Layer types.
A screen-locked layer.
A vector-path layer in scene space.
A screen-locked vector-path layer. This item exists only here; the menu bar has no equivalent.
A layer with an effect stack and no content. Creating one opens Effect Controls immediately. See Adjustment layers.
Adds a paint sub-layer to the top of the active layer's stack and makes it the draw target.
Adds a paintable mask to the active layer and activates it. Shown only when the layer has no mask yet.
Wraps the active layer in a new folder named Group 1, Group 2, and so on, and selects it.
Moves the active layer into an existing group, chosen by name. Shown only when the layer is not already in a group and at least one group exists. Also available by long-pressing a layer row.
Takes the active layer out of its group. Shown only when the layer is in one. Also available by long-pressing a layer row.
In a 2D shot the first four items collapse to two — Layer and Vector layer — because the plane/camera split is a choice about depth the shot does not have. The panel says so above the list: "This shot is 2D. Every layer lies flat on the canvas and stacks in panel order."
Rows and badges
Every indicator on a row is read-only. Tapping a row selects it; actions come from the action row.
A layer row is 36 points tall and shows, from the left: the eye toggle, a thumbnail, a
viewfinder badge if the layer is camera-space, the layer's name in semibold when it is active, a
dashed-circle dot if the layer has a mask link, a filter dot if it has any effects, and — right
aligned — either 2D or the layer's depth as a whole number. An active layer is highlighted and
outlined.
The thumbnail is captured after the layer's effects have run, so a thumbnail can never disagree with what the layer actually renders.
A group header row is 28 points tall: a collapse chevron, an eye toggle, a folder icon, the group's name, and a filter dot if the group has effects. A group header is always tinted, whether or not it is selected. Collapsing a group affects the panel only and never the render.
A mask row is indented under its layer: an eye toggle that enables or disables the mask, a mask
icon tinted when active, the word Mask, and the word off when the mask is disabled.
A sub-layer row is 26 points tall and indented: an eye toggle, an icon, the name, and a filter dot if it has effects.
Within one layer the rows read layer, then mask, then sub-layers. Sub-layers are listed with the top of the stack first.
Long-pressing a layer row opens a context menu offering Isolate Layer (solo), Mute in Viewport, Move to group and Remove from group.
Isolate and mute
Two of those are about working speed, not about the picture. Both affect the viewport only, neither is saved with the shot, and export always renders everything.
Shows this layer and its sub-layers alone, so you can work against a light scene instead of a heavy one. An ISOLATED badge sits on the row while it is on, and the item reads Exit Isolation to turn it off. One layer at a time.
Hides one layer from the working viewport while leaving it in the render. Use it to thin a crowded shot down to what you are actually drawing. The item reads Show in Viewport on a muted layer.
Neither is the same as the row's visibility switch, which hides the layer for real — in the viewport and in the export alike.
Order and stacking
Rows are listed with the front of the scene at the top. A group header appears at the position of its first member; a group with no members has its header appended at the end.
Move up and Move down move the active target toward the front and the back of the panel respectively, for every kind of target.
Moving a main layer swaps its depth as well as its position in the list. The layer keeps its content but takes over the neighbour's stacking slot. Reordering a plane layer is therefore a change of depth, not only a change of list position.
The scene composites farthest-first, using a painter's algorithm with no depth buffer — flat parallel planes never interpenetrate. Where two units share a depth, the one nearer the top of the panel composites last, and so appears on top. This is why a new layer, inserted at the top of the list, reads as "added on top" in both the list and the scene.
"Farthest" is measured from where the camera is now, and recomputed every frame. A flat layer's place in the order is where its plane — including whatever the timeline has animated it to — crosses the line of sight. Orbit past the side of the scene and the order inverts, correctly: what was behind is now in front. A layer that has been animated into the foreground composites there without your having to reorder the panel.
Panel order still decides between layers at the same depth. Coplanar layers tie on distance and fall back to the list, so a flat document renders identically from every angle — panel order is exactly as meaningful as it always was, and no more.
Solids sort per pixel, not per layer
Layer order cannot resolve two three-dimensional objects on different layers — a sculpted head on one and a solid on another interpenetrate, and no ordering of whole layers is right for every pixel. When a scene holds such content the layers share real scene depth, so each pixel resolves on its own.
A group composites as a single unit at the depth of its frontmost member. Its members are composited back-to-front inside it, then the group's opacity, blend mode and effects apply to the result. Groups with no members are skipped entirely.
Merging and converting
Four operations on the Layer menu act on the whole layer rather than on what is inside it. They are on the system menu bar only, not the ☰ menu.
Merges the active layer into the one below. The strokes are moved, not flattened to pixels: each carries its own surface, so they render exactly as they did and stay individually editable. The merged layer's opacity is folded into the strokes' own.
Converts the layer's vector paths into painted strokes, reproducing each path's widths exactly.
Traces the layer's painted artwork into editable vector paths, added alongside the artwork.
The same, and then removes the raster artwork. Destructive.
Merge refuses rather than losing work. A layer carrying a blend mode, an effect stack or a mask cannot be merged, because there is no way to fold those into the strokes themselves — the panel states which one stopped it instead of merging and quietly dropping it.
Removing a layer is not on the undo stack
Undo records what happens inside a layer. Merging removes the merged layer, and undo will not bring it back — nor will it after Delete layer. This has always been true of deleting a layer; merge is simply easier not to notice.
Tracing is lossy, which is why the non-destructive item comes first. A traced path is a skeleton simplified out of pixels, and it is usually less editable than the raster it came from. Trace, compare, and only then reach for (Replace).
Read-only state
While the Effect Controls panel is open the canvas is read-only, and the panel says so:
Canvas is read-only while effects are open. Drawing and the tools are disabled; camera navigation
is unaffected, so you can still orbit and pan to inspect the result. Closing the panel with its
close button returns the canvas to normal.
Because creating an adjustment layer opens Effect Controls automatically, the canvas becomes read-only the moment one is added.