Adjustment layers

What it does

Add a blur, a color grade, a vignette — any of the layer effects — to an adjustment layer instead of a normal clip, and it grades what sits underneath it rather than itself. Multiple adjustment layers chain like nodes, bottom to top, each grading the output of the one below it.

Reach

reach decides when the grade runs. below is the classic After Effects model: it grades the composite beneath it at its own position in the layer stack, so moving it up reaches more layers. all ignores its z-position entirely and grades the whole frame as a final pass, no matter where it sits in the stack.

Filter

filter.mode narrows reach down to specific layers. all grades everything in reach. only grades just the clip or group ids you list — the grade shows only through their silhouette, and everything else in reach is left untouched. except is the inverse: everything in reach grades except the listed ids. Listing a group id expands to every descendant clip inside it, at any depth, so membership tracks as clips move in and out of the group.

The graded result composites back through the adjustment layer's own opacity — a wet/dry mix, so 50% opacity is a half-strength grade — and its blendMode, same as any other layer.

Effects on the whole frame

Select nothing, and the frame's inspector has its own Effectssection — grain over the whole comp, a grade on everything, a vignette on the finished picture. It is not a second stack: it is this one. “Add frame effect” creates an adjustment layer with all reach and shows you its stack, so the palette, presets, keyframes, reordering and mute are the ones you already know.

Because it stays a real clip on the timeline, you can see it, trim it, animate it, or give it a matte to grade only part of the picture — and the moment you scope it that way it stops being the frame's look and goes back to being an ordinary adjustment layer.

Where you'll meet this elsewhere

This is the mechanism behind motion tracking's one-click Blur region and B&W region buttons — both generate an adjustment layer scoped via filterto the tracked region automatically. It's also the natural way to apply one color grade to an entire scene at once, instead of duplicating it across every clip.