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LayerWise is built on a handful of ideas. Get these and every screen in the plugin makes sense.
Diagram: render files, matched to element names, placed into a template, resulting in a layered PSD

Render files are matched to elements by name, then placed into a template's layer structure

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Render engine

LayerWise supports three render engines: V-Ray, Corona and FStorm. Each has its own render element list and its own templates. Pick your engine on the Home screen and everything else follows from it.

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Render elements and name matching

LayerWise ships with the render element names of each engine (75 for V-Ray, 36 for Corona, 25 for FStorm), and you can add your own. Files and layers are recognized by name. If the name contains an element name, it belongs to that element: Matching is case-sensitive and avoids the usual false matches between related passes. Reflection does not match ReflectionFilter, RawReflection, TotalReflection, ReflectionAnalysis or CShading_Reflection, so each of those lands on its own element. A multichannel EXR works the same way: LayerWise splits it into one file per pass, named after the pass, and matches those. See Multichannel EXR.
No special naming scheme needed. The default file names from V-Ray, Corona and FStorm already contain the element names.

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Element flags

Each element has four switches, which change how LayerWise treats it: See Masks for how the masks are made and where they go.

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Templates

A template is the layer structure of a post-production PSD: a tree of groups, each with a name, label colour, blend mode, opacity and visibility, plus element slots inside the groups where the render files go. It also sets the document’s bit depth (8, 16 or 32 bits). You get eight built-in templates, and you can create your own from any PSD or in the template editor.
Inspect template dialog showing a V-Ray template's group tree and element slots

A template: groups with their blend modes, and element slots inside them

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Smart objects

LayerWise places every render as a smart object. That’s what makes updating possible: LayerWise replaces the contents later and leaves what’s attached to the layer alone (its mask, smart filters, layer styles, blend mode and opacity).
  • Embedded smart objects store the render inside the PSD. This is the default.
  • Linked smart objects point to the render file on disk and keep the PSD small.
You choose between them in Settings. When you update the renders of an existing PSD, LayerWise looks for smart objects whose layer names match an element. A layer called cam01.Reflection.png or Reflection counts as the Reflection element.
Render element layers must stay smart objects for updating to work. If you rasterized them, use Convert to smart objects first.

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Mask targets

A mask target is any layer or group whose name matches a mask’s name. When LayerWise makes a mask called #Wood from a multimatte, it puts that mask on every layer or group named exactly #Wood, and creates such a group if none exists. It also saves the mask as an alpha channel of the same name in the Channels panel. This is what keeps your masks up to date: name a group #Wood, put your wood adjustments inside, and each time you update the renders, the group’s mask is rebuilt from the new multimatte.

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Undo, cancel and safety

  • Every job shows up as undo steps in the History panel, one per element (for example Replacing Reflection), so you can step back through it.
  • Cancel a job at any time from the progress overlay or with Esc. If a step fails, only that step is rolled back.

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What stays on your computer

LayerWise works on your files locally. It only goes online to:
  • sign you in with your Pulze account (after the first sign-in it also works offline),
  • list and store your cloud templates, if you use them,
  • check once per launch whether a new version is available.
There is no telemetry or analytics. The optional AI assistant bridge only talks to apps on your own computer.

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Next steps

Install LayerWise, take the tour of the interface, then create your first document.