Overlay

Overlay is for mood and focus. It can place an image or color over the stage, or clear the current overlay.

Use Insert > Scene & UI > Overlay for fades, flashes, darkening, tinted scenes, and full-screen image overlays.

Properties

Node-specific properties

Field	What it does
Mode	Image, Color, or Clear.
Image	Background Image asset used when Mode is Image.
Color	Color used when Mode is Color.
Transparency	Overlay transparency from 0 to 1.

Inherited/common properties

Field	What it does
Name	Optional label used in the editor and Story Map. Leave it empty to use VNC's automatic node name.
Transition	Cut or Fade. Clear overlays can fade out too.
Transition Duration	Optional duration used when the selected transition is animated.
Advance	After Transition waits for animated overlay fades by default. Use Immediately when the route should continue while the overlay changes.
Next	Node that runs after this node finishes its own work.

Runtime Behavior

When Mode is Image, VNC shows the selected image above the scene. Color shows the selected color, and Clear removes the overlay.

Transparency is clamped between 0 and 1. Use lower values for stronger overlays and higher values for lighter overlays.

Overlay defaults to Advance After Transition, so a fade can fully cover or reveal the scene before later nodes run. Choose Immediately for effects that should overlap the next line or sprite change.

Common Uses

Use	Setup
Fade to black	Mode Color, Color #000000, Transparency 0.2, Transition Fade, Transition Duration 0.1, Advance After Transition, then set Next to the next node in your route.
Show curtains	Mode Image, Image curtains, Transparency 0.15, Transition Fade, Transition Duration 0.25, then set Next to the next node in your route.
Return to normal	Set Mode to Clear, then set Next to the next node in your route.

Overlay nodes are easiest to manage when every overlay has a matching clear later in the route.

Framing an image overlay

Image Overlay nodes include an Image Framing section. Move the image with Position X and Position Y, resize its frame with Width and Height, and choose Crop, Fit, or Stretch with Image Scaling. This is useful for overlay art that is intentionally smaller than the stage or whose important content would otherwise be cropped offscreen. Color and Clear modes remain full-stage operations and do not show image-only framing fields.

Using multiple overlays

Every Overlay node targets a Layer Key. Nodes with the same key update or clear the same visual layer, while different keys stay on screen independently. For example, a persistent vignette image can remain visible while a flash color layer fades in and out above it.

Use Layer Order to control stacking. Higher values appear above lower values. Layers with the same order use their key as a stable tie-breaker, so the result does not depend on playback timing.

Existing Overlay nodes use the primary layer at order 0. To remove an overlay, create a Clear Overlay node with the same Layer Key. Clearing one layer does not affect the others.