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Layer Stack

Manages the ordered stack of colour-correction layers applied to a clip. Add Layer and + Segment Layer sit at the bottom. Each row has an enable/disable eye toggle, an A alpha-contribution button, an M mask/lock button, and a remove (trash) button. Selecting a row opens the Blend / Delta Mix expansion underneath it.

Layers composite top-to-bottom. In the Viewer, Active Layer mode shows the accumulated result up through whichever layer is currently selected here; Final Output always shows the accumulated result through the whole stack, regardless of selection. Selecting a clip lands on its topmost layer by default, so Active Layer and Final Output normally agree — they only diverge if you deliberately select a lower layer to check its effect in isolation from what's above it.

Blend (opacity)

Labeled BLEND in the expansion under the selected row (0–100%). It blends the layer's finished pixels against the image entering the layer.

  • 100% — the layer's full correction applies, as normal.
  • Lower values — gently back off the layer's effect. This blends toward whatever the image looked like entering that layer, not toward gray or a flat image, so a partial value reads as "less of this correction," not "this correction faded out."
  • 0% — the layer has no visible effect, as if disabled, but stays enabled and fully editable for whenever you want to bring it back.

This is not the same control as Delta Mix below. Blend fades the already-graded result; Delta Mix scales the grading parameters themselves.

Delta Mix

A live 0–200% intensity dial over the actual values in the selected layer's grade — lift, gamma, gain, offset, brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, shadow lift, highlight rolloff, and the tone curve — not an opacity fade over the pixels. The authored numbers are never overwritten: Delta Mix scales a working copy for display and render, so you can drop a layer to 40% for review and return to 100% with the original values intact.

  • 0% — every scaled parameter sits at identity (no lift, no offset, gamma and gain both neutral). An honest A/B against the image entering the layer without disabling it.
  • 100% — exactly what you authored (the default).
  • Above 100%, up to 200% — the same scaling exaggerates the correction past what you dialed in.

Check RGB to replace the master DELTA slider with independent R, G, and B percentages when a match is close but one channel is running hot.

Pivot, skin-protect, and Blend are passed through unscaled — they are not part of the Delta Mix solve.

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Layer Stack expansion showing BLEND, the DELTA slider, and the RGB checkbox.

Alpha contribution

Click A on a row to cycle none → add → subtract:

  • A — this layer does not contribute to the clip's combined alpha.
  • A+ — unions this layer's qualifier, shape, or Segment mask into the combined matte.
  • A− — punches this layer's mask out of the combined matte.

The combined result is what the Colour Panel's ALPHA tab shapes, what Viewer ALPHA shows, and what export can embed, write as a standalone matte, or composite in Cut Out. See Output Panel.

Mask Lock

The M button on a colour-correction row with a qualifier or shape mask bakes that live mask into a per-frame cache and locks the mask controls. Playback and export then read the cache instead of recomputing live. Click again to unlock — the cache is kept, so you can make one change and re-lock without throwing the bake away. A locked layer with no cached frame yet (for example a frame added after the bake) shows as bake-stale until it is re-baked.

On a Segment layer, M opens the Colour Panel's SEGMENT tab rather than baking — Segment already stores a per-frame matte from the Segment pass itself. Full reference: Masking & Qualifiers.

Curve layers

A tone curve is a layer type, not a separate tool (folded in here 2026-08-16 — it used to be its own floating Curve Editor panel). Add one from Add Layer like any other correction. Selecting a curve layer reveals the curve editor inline, in the lower part of this panel; selecting anything else hides it. Like any other layer, it composites in stack order and responds to the BLEND control.

Layers from Match to Reference

Running a match from the Color Match Panel adds a new layer here, named "Match to Reference," on top of whatever a clip already has. It's an ordinary layer — visible, editable, and reorderable like any other — not a separate or hidden mechanism. BLEND is the intended way to back off an over-strong match: matching is a starting point, not a finished grade, so dialing the match layer down and adding your own adjustment on top is the expected workflow, not a workaround.