This blog article was originally published on August 8, 2022, and has been updated.
ArcGIS Living Atlas provides global, country-wide, and regional coverage for basemaps and many layers. But what if you’re interested in focusing on your state, county, city, or local project? Using blending and effects you can easily apply focus to Living Atlas basemaps and layers for your specific area of interest.
While all of the examples leverage Living Atlas content in one way or another, the techniques discussed below can be applied to any map or layer. Several approaches and examples are highlighted below, follow the steps using the sample maps and layers to learn how.
Quick links
Use these links to view the sample maps:
- State & County Focus
Uses feature-specific effects on a single layer to apply focus to counties within a state using a filter expression. - Wilshire Boulevard Corridor Focus
Uses Destination In blending to apply focus to a one-mile buffer around a street. - Country Focus
Uses Destination In blending and filters to apply focus to a country. - Esri Campus Sketch
Uses Destination Atop blending and a sketch polygon to apply focus to the Esri campus. - Area (Camp Fire) Focus
Uses Destination In blending along with duplicate layers and effects, plus map background color, to apply focus to a fire perimeter.
Use these links to jump to a section of interest.
- Feature-specific effects
- Blending using one polygon
- Blending using filters
- Blending using sketch layers
- Blending, duplicate layers with effects, and background color
Use feature specific effects
An easy way to apply focus to specific geographic areas is to use feature specific effects. The key to making these work is having the appropriate attributes to apply filters to emphasize your area of interest.
The map shown below uses feature-specific effects to filter for a particular state (Missouri in this case) and highlight it apart from other states.
Make the map
To make the map shown above, follow these steps.
Step 1 – Open the starter map and Sign In using your ArcGIS account. You can also follow along without signing in, but you won’t be able to save your work.
To streamline the workflow, the county layer in the starter map has been extracted from the original Median Home Value 2026 Living Atlas group layer. You can use the original group layer, but will need to select the Countyies sublayer in the Median Home Value group layer to follow along.
The sample map also uses the Human Geography Map basemap. Basemaps with reference layers work best with this technique since labels and other details will always draw atop the focus area.
Step 2 — In the Contents (dark) toolbar, open the layers pane and ensure that Median Home Value and Income by County is selected.
Step 3 — In the Settings (light) toolbar, click Effects.
Step 4 — In the Effects pane, click Feature-specific and choose Drop Shadow + Gray from the effects list.
This will apply a grayscale effect to all features that do not match the filter expression.
Step 5 — If you see a previous expression, click Clear all in the upper left of the pane. Once all expressions have been cleared, click Add new.
Step 6 — In the Condition pane, open the field list drop-down. Locate and select State Abbreviation to use as the field, complete the condition by choosing a state.
Step 7 — Experiment with different effects (and basemaps) to achieve the desired results. Shown below are Drop Shadow + Gray and Drop Shadow + Transparency.
The same techniques can be used with any map having layers that have filterable geographies.
Use blending
Another easy way to apply focus to specific geographic areas is to use blending. The key to making blending work as desired is having the appropriate areas (polygons) that you can use as geographic filters, and an understanding of how group layers can be used to apply blending to only layers within the group.
The map shown below uses blending to apply focus along a one-mile corridor of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The map uses Destination In blending to achieve the result.
Make the map
To make the map, follow these steps.
Step 1 — Open the starter map and Sign In using your ArcGIS account. You can also follow along without signing in, but you won’t be able to save your work.
To streamline the workflow, the starter map already has the Wilshire Boulevard corridor layer (a one-mile buffer of the boulevard centerline) and World Imagery layer (from Living Atlas). It uses the Terrain with Labels basemap.
Step 2 — Add the two layers to a group layer. The blending will be confined to the layers within the group.
2a. In the Contents (dark) toolbar, open the Layers pane. Open the options menu for the buffer and click Group to create a new group layer.
2b. Open the group layer and drag and drop World Imagery into the group. Ensure that World Imagery is positioned below the Wilshire Boulevard buffer.
Step 3 — In the Layers pane, select the Wilshire Boulevard layer.
Step 4 — Open the Properties pane from the Settings (light) toolbar, then in the Appearance section open the Blending drop-down.
Step 5 — Scroll down to locate and choose Destination In.
Destination In is a compositing blend mode that uses the top layer as a mask against others. Destination In is used when you want the destination, or background layer (in this case the imagery), to only draw where it overlaps the top layer.
Note that for best results, the polygon you are using for the mask should be styled using a solid fill and no transparency. An outline is not necessary. For more information, see Use blend modes.
Experiment with different effects and layers
You can soften the sharp edges of the blend using a Bloom effect on the Wilshire Boulevard buffer layer. In the Settings toolbar, click Effects, select Bloom, then adjust the strength, radius, and threshold of the bloom to achieve the desired results.
You can add other layers to the group layer and position them below the buffer layer to include them in the blend. Shown below, the Living Atlas World Traffic Service live feed has been added to the map, then to the group layer.
Use blending with layer filters
In the previous example, a single polygon layer (the Wilshire Boulevard buffer) is used for Destination In blending. However you can use any layer that has the desired geography, including layers that have filterable attributes to isolate the focus area.
The map shown above uses Living Atlas World Countries and World Imagery layers atop the Dark Gray Canvas basemap. As in the previous example, both layers are placed in a group layer, with World Countries above World Imagery.
The World Countries (Generalized) layer uses Destination In blending and applies a filter, in this case “Country Name is Italy.”
To improve the visual highlight around the country, a Bloom effect was applied, expanding the mask beyond the country boundary. If using the Filter setting, Whole layer bloom effects work well. When using Feature-specific effects, you can construct the filter directly in the effect.
Change the filter to apply focus to a different country, or add multiple filters to apply focus to several countries.
Use blending with sketch layers
Sketch layers offer an easy way to apply focus to specific areas. In the map shown below, a sketch layer was added to the map and a polygon was drawn around the Esri Redlands campus boundary. Blending and adjustments to the visibility of the basemap’s component layers were made to produce the final result.
The map uses Destination Atop blending on the sketch layer, which is paired with the Living Atlas Charted Territory layer in the Esri Campus group layer.
The map uses the Terrain with Labels basemap with modifications: the World Terrain Reference and World Hillshade layers are hidden.
Use blending with duplicate layers and effects
Duplicating layers provides opportunities to leverage multiple effects on the same layer. In the map shown below, the fire perimeter layer was duplicated so that different effects could be applied to the same layer. Open the map to examine how it was created.
The top layer is styled using a red outline with transparent fill. It uses a Drop shadow effect ( shadow #000000, width 3, X-offset 2 / Y-offset 3, and Opacity of 50) to make it “pop.”
The second (duplicate) layer is styled with a white background and no outline. Destination In blending is used, along with a Bloom effect (Strength 2.2, Radius 0.6, Threshold 10).
The Outdoor Map basemap is used with a green map background color to harmonize with the predominant colors in the basemap. You can change the background color to explore different effects.
More information
For more information, see:
- Use blend modes (Help)
- Use effects (Help)
- Highlighting areas using effects and blending (ArcGIS Blog)
- Effects in Map Viewer (ArcGIS Blog)
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