SVG
Import SVG files into After Effects as real, editable text and shape layers — re-type and recolor your logo instead of wrestling with flattened outlines.
After Effects has never had a good way to bring an SVG in. Drag one onto a comp and you get a flattened raster or a single locked vector blob; convert it and your type becomes outlines — the letters turned into frozen paths you can no longer re-type. Prism imports an SVG as real After Effects objects — live text layers and native shape layers — so you can re-type a headline, swap a font, recolor a path, or animate any piece individually. This is one of the AI-native tools Prism adds because AE can't do it on its own.
Why native layers matter
A flattened import gives you pixels or a frozen vector. A native import gives you the building blocks. Recoloring a brand mark, retiming a single stroke, or fixing a typo means editing the layer directly — no re-export from your vector tool, no round-trip.
| Approach | Text | Shapes | Recolor / retype |
|---|---|---|---|
| AE drag-and-drop (raster) | flattened pixels | flattened pixels | re-export needed |
| AE "create shapes from vector" | converted to outlines | shapes, but type is dead | re-export needed |
| Prism SVG import | live text layers | native shape layers | edit in AE directly |
How it works
Prism reads your SVG's structure — text nodes, paths, fills, strokes, groups — and rebuilds each element as the matching native AE object. Text elements become text layers; paths and shapes become shape layers with their fills and strokes intact. Everything lands in your active comp as editable, animatable layers, and the import is undoable in one step (see how Prism works).
How to use it
Run it from the Tools tab, or ask your AI in plain language — Prism runs the same tool either way.
Finding the file path: on macOS, right-click the SVG in Finder, hold Option, and choose "Copy as Pathname"; on Windows, Shift-right-click in Explorer and choose "Copy as path." Paste that into your request so Prism knows exactly which file to import.
Your logo comes in as the same shapes and text you would have drawn by hand — so you can re-type the name and recolor the mark without ever leaving After Effects.
A worked example
| You say | Prism does |
|---|---|
| "Import /Users/me/brand/logo.svg into this comp as editable layers." | Reads the SVG's text nodes, paths, fills, and strokes, and rebuilds each as a native text or shape layer, grouped and ready to animate. |
What you get back: your logo as native shape layers (and text layers for any live type), placed in the active comp — re-type the wordmark, recolor a path, or animate one piece on its own.
If the path is wrong: the import surfaces "file not found" when the path doesn't resolve. Re-copy the full path (see the note above) and paste it exactly, with no surrounding quotes.
Working with text
If the SVG contains real text, Prism brings it in as editable text layers. If a font won't resolve or imported type looks heavy or clipped, that's a known AE quirk — see troubleshooting for the font-name and stroke fixes.
If your SVG was exported with text already converted to outlines, there is no live type to recover — those elements arrive as shape paths. Export with live text from your vector tool to keep it editable.
Related
- Real keyframes, not scripts — what "editable layers" means once your logo is in.
- Lifelike motion — animate an imported mark from a plain-language motion description.
- AI-native After Effects — why SVG import is something AE can't do on its own.
- Troubleshooting — font names, the AE-2026 stroke quirk, and connection fixes.