Hey guys,
I just encountered a problem yesterday - the blending modes / effects in Construct don't seem to match up with the blending modes in other compositing / image editing apps, like Photoshop, After Effects, Fusion, Shake, etc. - that's a problem, since most of the art in games is being done in those apps and not being able to use the same blending would result in either having to bake things down to a simple image (which would mean that you couldn't take the elements and use them for parallax scrolling, which would suck big time), or you get some freakishly weird results.
The way I build up paintings, textures and stuff is to start simple, keeping simple elements in layers and then blend them together, so that I get my final result. So, let's take a look at a concrete example:
<img src="http://www.thomasmahler.com/files/construct/images/scythsTreasure_01.jpg">
This image is still very simple. Basically, I have a brownish background, a light source that emulates the sun, a couple of trees and tree-backdrops with varying opacity values and inbetween those trees, I have some mist layers that are basically just white fog with an overlay blending mode.
So, let's look at the image in it's bare essence and let's look at the difference between Photoshops and Constructs Blending Modes:
1) Up to this point, things are still very simple: In Construct, I set the light to be a little weaker and the tree backdrops opacity is a bit lower, but it's still very much the same thing:
<img src="http://www.thomasmahler.com/files/construct/images/comparison_01.jpg">
Now comes the kicker:
2) I quickly painted a layer of mist / fog, set it to 65% opacity and the blending mode to overlay (used the exact same settings in both apps):
<img src="http://www.thomasmahler.com/files/construct/images/comparison_02.jpg">
I mostly use Overlay and Soft Light for lighting effects in a compositing app and it's SUPER useful. I have no idea how the overlay effect in Construct works, it's never given me anything but very weird results. All the blending modes work the exact same way in every compositing app out there, so it's fucking weird that Construct gives me completely different results. I tried both applying it as an effect and applying the mode to a whole layer, but it seems to be based on the same algorithm, since the results are exactly the same.
3) Here's the fog layer in solitude, normal and 100% opacity. It's just a simple color wash, as you see:
<img src="http://www.thomasmahler.com/files/construct/images/comparison_03.jpg">
Now, if the blending modes don't work properly in Construct, creating good graphics in it will be really hard, since you concept stuff in an image editing app like Photoshop anyway. I could make it static (but that'd suck big time, since it'd ruin the effect) or always try to figure out how to set-up the image twice, would would basically double development time and costs in terms of art - which would also suck BIG TIME.
I'm pretty sure that blending mode stuff must be online somewhere, since it works the same in every singe image editing app out there. Having all of them work like in your application is _vital_ in order to get proper art into Construct.