Adobe After Effects 26.5.0 — macOS

You have a clip that needs a logo removed, footage that shakes, or a title sequence that should do more than just sit there. After Effects is the tool that handles that kind of work — compositing, motion graphics, animation, and the visual effects you see in everything from credit rolls to full broadcast packages.

Before you install version 26.5 on a Mac, a few things are worth knowing. The software runs on macOS 14 Sonoma with 16 GB of RAM and about 8 GB of free disk space. It works on both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. If you are moving from an older version, remove it first — two copies of After Effects on the same system do not play well together.

One install quirk that catches people: if you see CCXProcess or error #1 during setup, you need Rosetta. Open Terminal, run /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license, press Enter, wait for it to finish, then run the installer again. The package also includes a Camera Raw download link if you need it. The activation instructions are in the included files. That is about all the friction you will hit — after that, the software just works.

Once installed, you can animate any layer, stabilize shaky footage, remove objects, and build motion graphics with preset styles or frame by frame. New guides in this release support percentage-based positioning and edge pinning, which helps keep layouts consistent without guesswork.

Percentage-based guides in After Effects

The September 2026 release—version 26.5—introduces a few practical changes you will notice once you start building compositions. The new guide system is the most visible addition. Guides now support percentage-based positioning instead of only pixel coordinates. If you are working on a project that needs to scale across different frame sizes, that saves you from recalculating positions by hand. Edge pinning lets you snap guides to the edges of your composition rather than dragging them into place, and custom guide colors help when you are managing several alignment lines on a busy screen.

Object Matte results can now be cached to disk between sessions. If you frequently use the same source footage for masking, After Effects remembers the matte data so you do not have to regenerate it each time you open the project. For anyone compositing green-screen clips or layered graphics day after day, that is a time saver.

The release notes also mention new features and important fixes. Nothing in the changelog reworks the interface or changes the way you work from scratch — it is maintenance and refinement, which is what a mature tool like After Effects needs at this point.

System requirements for After Effects on macOS

The system requirements are the same as the previous version: macOS 14 Sonoma, 16 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of free disk space for the installation. Both Intel and Apple Silicon machines are supported. The display minimum is 1440x900, though most people working with After Effects will want more screen real estate for the timeline and preview panels.

On the disk side, After Effects itself does not take up the full 8 GB after installation, but you need that space for the installer to expand and for temporary files during setup. Keep another 10 to 20 GB free for project files, cache, and previews if you work with high-resolution footage or long timelines. The Object Matte cache mentioned earlier will also eat a little disk space over time, but the trade-off is worth it if you reuse the same mattes.

Language support includes English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. The interface language is set during installation and can be changed in the preferences later if you need to switch.

A workflow for removing an object from a clip

One of the common tasks in After Effects is cleaning up footage — removing a logo from a wall, a microphone from a frame, or a stray shadow. Here is a straightforward workflow for that, using the built-in tools without third-party plugins.

1. Import your clip into a new composition.
2. Select the clip layer in the timeline. Go to the Layer menu and choose New, then Layer to create a blank adjustment layer above the clip. This keeps your edits non-destructive.
3. With the adjustment layer selected, go to the Effect menu, choose Generate, then click Fill. This gives you a solid color layer you can paint over the object you want to remove. Set the fill color by sampling a clean area of the footage with the Eyedropper tool.
4. Use the Pen tool or the Brush tool to create a mask around the object on the adjustment layer. The mask hides the object while revealing the solid color underneath. Feather the mask edges slightly so the repair blends with the surrounding pixels — a feather value of 2 to 5 pixels works for most footage.
5. If the object moves across the frame, keyframe the mask position over time. Expand the adjustment layer's mask properties, click the stopwatch next to Mask Path, and adjust the mask shape every few frames until the object is covered throughout the clip.
6. Preview the result. If the fill color does not match perfectly, adjust the color or try the Clone Stamp tool under the Effect menu instead of Fill. Clone Stamp samples pixels from a source area and paints them over the object, which often blends better with textured backgrounds.
7. Export the cleaned clip. Go to File, Export, and choose Adobe Media Encoder to render out a ProRes or H.264 version of the composition with the mask applied.

This workflow works for short clips with simple backgrounds. For complex footage with moving cameras or detailed textures, you may need to combine masks with the new Object Matte caching feature — generate a matte from a clean reference frame, cache it, and apply it to the adjustment layer for faster previews.

Raising undo levels in After Effects Preferences

After Effects ships with conservative defaults, so a few adjustments make the interface more comfortable for daily use.

Open the Preferences panel (Command-comma). Under the General tab, increase the Undo levels from the default of something like 10 to 20 or 30. After Effects can handle more undo steps without noticeably slowing down, and you will appreciate the extra safety net when experimenting with complex animations.

In the Display section, turn on GPU acceleration if your Mac has an Apple Silicon or compatible Intel GPU. This shifts some rendering tasks to the graphics card and reduces lag when scrubbing through the timeline. The option is under Performance in older versions of After Effects, but in version 26.5 it lives in the Display or Video Preview settings depending on your system.

The auto-save files are stored in the Documents folder by default — you can change the location in Preferences under Auto-Save if you keep project files on an external drive.

Finally, under the Audio Output section, set the device to your system default or a specific audio interface if you work with sound. After Effects does not need high-end audio hardware for basic previews, but routing audio through the wrong output can cause crackling or dropped frames during playback.

• New guides with percentage-based positioning, edge pinning, custom colors, and better editing controls.
• Object Matte results can now be cached to disk between sessions.
• The update includes general fixes and new features noted in the release notes.

• macOS 14 Sonoma
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac
• 16 GB RAM
• 8 GB available disk space for installation
• 1440x900 display