What Prism Actually Does (and Why It Matters)
Prism is a plugin built to bridge the gap between design tools and After Effects, starting with Photoshop. It lets you bring your layered Photoshop files into After Effects in a structured, animation-ready way, without the usual chaos of misaligned layers, missing fonts, or flattened groups that make you want to throw your laptop out the window. Starting at $69, it's a practical investment for anyone doing this kind of work regularly. You can grab it at the Next Horizon store.
If you've ever spent 45 minutes manually recreating a comp because your PSD import went sideways, you already understand why this exists. The bridge between design and motion has always been clunky. Prism is an attempt to fix that, and honestly, it gets a lot right.
Before You Start: What You Actually Need
This isn't a "just install and go" situation. A little prep saves a lot of pain.
- A properly organized PSD file. Named layers, grouped logically, no random merged layers hiding in the middle. If your file is a mess, Prism can't fix that for you.
- After Effects CC installed and up to date. Older versions may cause compatibility issues.
- Prism installed from the Next Horizon store. Follow the install steps in the documentation, don't skip them.
- A clear idea of what you want to animate. Prism is a transfer tool, not a creative direction tool. You still need to know what the end result should look like.
Okay. Now the actual process.
Step 1: Organize Your Photoshop File Like You Mean It
This is where most people fail before they even open Prism. A disorganized PSD file will produce a disorganized comp, full stop.
Go through your file and name every layer something meaningful. "Layer 47 copy copy" is not a layer name. Group related elements together, background elements, UI components, text blocks, icons. If you have a button, group the background shape and the label text inside one group called "Button" or whatever makes sense in context.
Keep your layer count reasonable. If you have 200 loose layers, consider whether some of them should be merged before you export. Prism preserves your layer structure, so whatever you bring in is what you work with in After Effects.
Step 2: Run Prism and Map Your Layers
Open Prism inside Photoshop. The interface walks you through selecting which layers or groups you want to transfer. Take your time here. You don't have to send everything at once, and sometimes it's smarter to transfer in sections, especially if your file has a complex structure.
Prism reads your layer names, positions, sizes, and grouping. It tries to preserve as much of this as possible when building the After Effects comp. The more organized your PSD, the cleaner the result on the other side.
The tool is only as smart as the file you feed it. Garbage in, garbage out. That's not a Prism problem, that's just how transfers work.
Step 3: Review the Comp Before You Animate Anything
This step gets skipped constantly, and it causes real problems later. Once your file lands in After Effects, don't start animating immediately. Spend five to ten minutes reviewing the comp structure.
Check that your layer order is correct. Check that groups translated into pre-comps the way you expected. Check that text layers are still editable and not rasterized. If anything looks wrong at this stage, it's much faster to fix it now than after you've already built keyframes on top of a broken structure.
I've made the mistake of skipping this review before. You end up three hours into an animation and realize a layer that was supposed to be independent got merged with something else. Backing out of that is not fun.
Step 4: Use the Live Sync Feature for Iterations
One of the most useful things Prism can do is live sync. If your design changes after the initial transfer, you don't have to start over. You can update in Photoshop and see the changes reflect in After Effects without rebuilding your comp from scratch.
This is particularly useful when you're working with a client who keeps tweaking copy or swapping out assets. Instead of re-importing manually and breaking your animation, Prism handles the update in a much less painful way.
That said, live sync works best when the structural changes are small. If the client decides to completely redesign the layout, that's a different conversation. But for copy changes, color swaps, or swapping out images? Genuinely saves time.
Step 5: Clean Up and Animate With Intention
Now you're actually in After Effects with a comp that makes sense. The real work starts here.
Prism did the heavy lifting of bringing your design over. Your job now is to bring it to life. Use your layer grouping as a guide for how things should move. Elements inside the same group probably share timing. Background layers probably come in first or stay static. Build your animation logic around the structure you already set up.
If you want to see what this kind of workflow can produce, check out our work at Next Horizon for reference on how clean, structured design-to-motion pipelines translate into polished final output.
The Most Common Way This Goes Wrong
People treat Prism like a magic fix for a messy process. It isn't. The plugin is excellent at what it does, but it amplifies whatever you bring into it. A clean, well-organized PSD produces a clean, animation-ready comp. A chaotic, poorly labeled file produces chaos on the other side, just faster.
The other big mistake is skipping the review step after import. You have to check the comp before you build on it. Fifteen minutes of review can save you hours of rework.
Start clean. Review before animating. Use live sync for small updates. That's the workflow that actually holds up under real project pressure.
If you're figuring out how to build better motion workflows or just want someone to handle the whole thing, reach out to the team at Next Horizon. We'd be glad to help.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Prism cost?
Prism starts at $69 and is available through the Next Horizon store. It's a one-time purchase designed for motion designers who regularly move assets between Photoshop and After Effects and want to stop wasting time on broken manual imports.
What is Prism used for in After Effects?
Prism is a plugin that transfers layered Photoshop files into After Effects while preserving your layer names, grouping, and positions. It also includes a live sync feature so design updates in Photoshop can reflect in your After Effects comp without rebuilding everything from scratch.
Is Prism worth it for motion designers?
If you regularly work with Photoshop designs that need to be animated in After Effects, yes. The time saved on manual layer recreation and re-importing after design changes adds up quickly. It works best when your source PSD is well-organized to begin with.
What is the difference between importing a PSD manually and using Prism?
Manual PSD import into After Effects often loses layer structure, flattens groups, or misaligns elements. Prism is built specifically to preserve your layer hierarchy and naming, and it adds live sync so iterative design changes don't require a full re-import and comp rebuild.
Does Prism work with Figma as well as Photoshop?
Prism was originally developed as a Figma to After Effects bridge and has expanded its support. Check the current product page at the Next Horizon store for the latest information on which design tools are supported in the version you're purchasing.
