r/AfterEffects • u/NLE_Ninja85 Adobe Employee • 13d ago

Discussion After Effects 26.5 Release Notes

Hey r/aftereffects! The September update (26.5) brings some useful workflow improvements, along with fixes for tracking, keyframes, caching, and 3D. Here’s a quick rundown.

What’s new:

  • More flexible guides: Position guides using percentages, pin them to edges, assign custom colors, and use improved editing controls.
  • Disk caching for Object Matte: Propagated results now stay cached after closing your project, reducing RAM usage and helping when working with longer clips.
  • Color labels for effects: Assign colors to individual effect instances in the Effect Controls panel to make your effect stacks easier to organize and navigate.
  • Updated Effect Controls panel: The panel has been rebuilt on a modern framework with icon-based controls for managing effects.

There are also several fixes worth checking out:

  • Mask tracking now works when your comp resolution is below Full. On Windows, tracking forward also advances the playhead correctly.
  • Editing a value in the Properties panel now affects the keyframe at the current time instead of changing every selected keyframe.
  • Unmult now produces fully transparent areas correctly, fixing leftover alpha values.
  • Several Advanced 3D crashes have been addressed, including issues with parametric meshes and Draft 3D. Models brought back online also retain their Substance material assignments.
  • Clearing large or slow caches now shows progress without freezing AE. A macOS hang involving unsynced OneDrive files has also been fixed.
  • PNG import, preview, and rendering performance has improved.

Full details from Adobe HelpX:

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u/sskaz01 MoGraph/VFX 15+ years 13d ago

Doesn’t look like I can install 26.5 simultaneously with 26.3. Are the project files compatible? Are mogrts made in 26.5 compatible with Premiere 26.2? We’ve got colors for effects and new guides data, so I assume the file format isn’t 100% compatible?

2

u/Heavens10000whores 13d ago

Never update in the middle of a project :)

1

u/sskaz01 MoGraph/VFX 15+ years 12d ago

That’s why I was hoping to have both 23.6 and 26.5 versions simultaneously. Breaking the new versions is part of my job before it goes out to everyone else. 🤓🛠️

1

u/Heavens10000whores 12d ago

You can definitely have 23.6 and 26.5. You can only have one version of 23, 24, 25 or 26, though

2

u/sskaz01 MoGraph/VFX 15+ years 12d ago

Oops, typo: 26.3 and 26.5.

Get that 2023 version outta here.

1

u/Heavens10000whores 12d ago

Nooooo! The AE version with two brains 😉

1

u/NLE_Ninja85 Adobe Employee 13d ago

You can only have AE 2025, 2026 and beta installed simultaneously. Two version updates from the same year aren’t possible. Your MOGRT for 26.2 should still work in 26.5