How to Fade Out Clips With Blend Modes in Premiere Pro

Blank space on the Premiere Pro timeline is transparent, not black, so a clip with a blend mode like Overlay has nothing to blend with and the opacity fade breaks. Nest the clip and put the fade on the nest.

These steps are for Premiere Pro on desktop (Windows or Mac).

How to fade out a blend mode clip by nesting it

1. Select the clip. Click the clip with the blend mode on your timeline.
2. Nest the clip. Right-click it and choose Nest. Name the nest if you like and click OK. The clip keeps its blend mode inside the nest.
3. Add the fade to the nest. Select the nest, open Window > Effect Controls and keyframe Opacity from 100% at the start of the fade to 0% at the end. A Cross Dissolve dragged onto the end of the nest works too.
4. Play it back. Scrub through the fade. The clip now fades out smoothly and disappears fully at the end.

Nesting works because Premiere fades the finished, already-blended result instead of fighting the blend mode on the clip itself.

Put a black color matte under the clip

If you'd rather not nest, give the blend mode something to blend with. A black layer under the clip does that.

1. Open File > New > Color Matte, click OK and pick black.
2. Drag the matte from the Project panel onto V1, under your clip, and stretch it to cover the clip's length.
3. Keep your blend mode clip on the track above it.
4. Keyframe the clip's Opacity down to 0% in Effect Controls.

Now the blend mode has a solid base to work against, so the opacity fade behaves like a normal fade.

Fade a black layer in on top

You can also leave the clip alone and cover it instead. Put a black color matte on the track above your clip, then keyframe the matte's Opacity from 0% up to 100%. The black layer fades in over the clip, which looks like the clip fading out to black.

This only works when you want to fade to black. If you need the clip to fade out and reveal footage underneath, use one of the fixes above.

For more Premiere Pro fixes, see how to remove objects and hands in Premiere Pro.

FAQ

Why doesn't the opacity slider work when a blend mode is on? The blend mode and the opacity both live in the same Opacity section of the clip, and the blend mode mixes the clip with whatever sits under it. If only empty, transparent timeline sits under the clip, there's nothing to blend with, so lowering opacity doesn't fade it the way you expect.

Should the black layer go above or below the clip? Below, if you want the blend mode clip itself to fade out properly. A black matte on V1 gives the blend mode a base to work against. A black layer on top only fakes a fade to black by covering the clip.