---
title: "08 - Symbol Mapper: Effect & Source Opacity"
url: "https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/08-symbol-mapper-effect-source-opacity.html"
section_path: "Stylize > Symbol-Mapper > 08 - Symbol Mapper: Effect & Source Opacity"
description: "Only two top-level parameters remain, Effect Opacity and Source Opacity, and both only offer one control each."
---

## Symbol Mapper: Effect & Source Opacity

Only two top-level parameters remain, **Effect Opacity** and **Source Opacity**, and both only offer one control each.

[Video: Universe_SymbolMapper_SourceOpacity.mp4](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Multimedia/Universe_SymbolMapper_SourceOpacity.mp4)

**Effect Opacity** does exactly what it says. The lower the value, the more the underlying source image will show through your characters (provided **Source Opacity** has a value above 0).

**Source Opacity** helps expose more of the underlying source as you raise the opacity’s value. This can yield some interesting results. For example, in the animation above, watch how red and gold characters seem to dance in the spinning woman’s coat when we set **Source Opacity** to 80. We recommend experimenting with tweaking **Effect Opacity** and **Source Opacity** in tandem to arrive at some eye-catching results.

In conclusion, Symbol Mapper is an impressive tool with very low system resource utilization, allowing blazing fast performance that won’t impact other applications. We encourage you to experiment with the plug-in’s various abilities, then, if you’re feeling adventurous, combine them with other Universe tools, such as [Turbulence Noise](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/Generators-turbulence-noise.html.md) and [Chromatown](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/Stylize_chromatown.html.md). Prepare to be impressed.