LayerStyle: GradientOverlay V2

Photoshop's Gradient Overlay layer style: two color stops, an angle, and a gradient that follows your subject's mask instead of covering the whole frame. Good for mood grading, a fake colored light source, a gradient backdrop behind text, or a sky wash over a masked region. This is V2 - same job as the original GradientOverlay, one meaningful upgrade under the hood.

What changed from V1

Every parameter here is identical to the original GradientOverlay node - same colors, same alphas, same angle control. The one difference is blend_mode: V2 carries the full 30-mode Photoshop blend list (normal, dissolve, darken, multiply, color burn, linear burn, darker color, lighten, screen, color dodge, and on through eighteen more), where V1 works off a shorter, 19-entry set with a couple of naming quirks. If you're picking between the two for a new workflow, there's no real downside to defaulting to V2 - you get more blend options for the same effort, and nothing about the base gradient math changed.

How it works

The mask (layer_mask, or the layer's own alpha with invert_mask set right) defines where the gradient paints. start_color/start_alpha and end_color/end_alpha interpolate across that shape at your chosen angle, and the result blends onto the background at opacity through whichever of the 30 blend modes you pick. The alpha values on each stop matter as much as the colors - drop one toward 0 and that end fades toward transparent instead of hard-stopping at a solid color, which is the difference between a wash and a hard color block.

The inputs and outputs that matter

• start_color / end_color (hex, defaults #FFBF30 and #FE0000) - the two gradient stops.
• start_alpha / end_alpha (0–255, default 255) - per-stop opacity; use these to fade an end out rather than color-blocking it.
• angle (-180 to 180, default 0) - gradient direction.
• invert_mask (default true) - flip if the gradient's landing on the wrong side of the mask.
• background_image, layer_image, optional layer_mask, opacity, and the 30-mode blend_mode.

Output: a single composited image.

How to install it

Ships with the ComfyUI Layer Style pack. ComfyUI Manager → search ComfyUI Layer Style → install → restart. Manual:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/chflame163/ComfyUI_LayerStyle
pip install -r ComfyUI_LayerStyle/requirements.txt

then restart. Lives under 😺dzNodes → LayerStyle. No model downloads.

Common issues & troubleshooting

Gradient's landing on the background, not the subject. invert_mask - the pack's most common gotcha, and this node's no exception. Flip it and re-run.

Result looks muddy or unpredictable. With 30 blend modes now on the table it's easy to pick one that mixes aggressively with what's underneath (linear burn, vivid light, and similar options are punchy). If you just want the gradient colors as painted, normal is your baseline - branch out from there deliberately, not by accident.

Effect is barely visible. Check opacity first, then start_alpha/end_alpha - both stack with layer opacity, so a low value on either quietly guts the effect even when everything else looks right.

Node doesn't show up in your palette at all. Pack-level import failure, not this node specifically. LayerStyle's dependency list is long, and a broken transformers/stray-TensorFlow combo is the usual way the whole pack fails to load together. Check the startup console or hit "Try Fix" in Manager.