The Min (darkened) and Max (lightened) blending modes

The Min blending mode picks the lower values from either the foreground or background.

The Max blending mode picks the brighter values from either the foreground or background. The Min (darkened) and Max (lightened) nodes are commutative nodes.

Let us see how to work with these nodes in the following steps:

1. Open the Min_and_Max.sbs file from the given Substance 3D Designer exercise files, load the Min_and_Max.sbsscn state file, then choose Plane (hi-res) from the Scene menu. Right-click with the mouse in the GRAPH window and choose View Outputs In 3D View.
2. In the Min_and_Max.sbs Substance graph file, the Gradient Linear 1 node is connected as Foreground while the Clouds 3 node is connected as Background, and Blending Mode is set to Min (Darken).

You can also switch Foreground and Background without affecting the results because the Min and Max blending modes are commutative.

3. You will notice that...