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 See a description of how to create and use billboards on the Material examples - How To section. 

Blending Modes: Normal and Additive

You can choose between Normal and Additive mode to blend the current layer with the layers below.

• If the Layer is set to Normal mode it will act like a “solid” Layer, and it will be stacked as a real material on top of another Layer. So if If the Layer blending mode is set to Normal and its opacity is 100, no layers underneath this Layer will be visible. For example, if its weight is set to 5050%, it will act as a semi-transparent material that is on top of the layer(s) underneath it.

• Additive mode however takes the material properties found in the components of the layer (the color, reflectance of any BSDFs, coating etc) and multiplies those values with the layers underneath it, much like the “Screen” blending mode in Photoshop. This means that even if the layer’s weight is set to 100, in Additive mode the layers underneath it will still be visible. The Additive mode has the overall effect of brightening the material. When the layer in Additive mode is brighter, the colors of the layers underneath it will get brighter. When the Additive mode layer is fully black, no change occurs in the layers underneath it. When the Additive mode layer is fully white (a strong reflection) everything underneath it also becomes fully white.

A good way to visualize this effect is thinking of projecting light through several photographic slides. It can be useful to create interesting blends between the textures used in the BSDFs of the different layers and also to create plastics that have a thin shiny coating on the surface that still allows the color of the plastic to show through beneath it.