After Effects 26.5 adds disk caching for AI-powered Object Matte, speeds up Mask Tracker

Adobe's September 2026 release of After Effects (version 26.5, released September 9) adds disk caching to AI-powered Object Matte -- the single-click automatic subject isolation/tracking tool introduced in the April 2026 release (26.2) -- so a shot's propagated matte results survive closing the project instead of needing to be recomputed every session, a meaningful saving on a long stop-motion sequence built from thousands of individually exposed frames. The same release line's June 2026 build (26.3) separately sped up the manual Mask Tracker up to 5x, startable directly from the Timeline panel. 26.5 also adds percentage-based guides with edge pinning and a modernised Effect Controls panel with per-effect colour labels. Folded into the Wiki's After Effects compositing page alongside the existing Content-Aware Fill rig-removal workflow; no production has yet been found naming Object Matte in a stop-motion rig-removal pass.