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For those who don’t know the tool: Mocha Pro from Boris FX handles planar tracking, PowerMesh, masking and roto as a standalone app or plugin for major editing and compositing hosts, like Resolve, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Nuke, Fusion, Flame and Vegas Pro.
Points meet planes
Mocha Pro 2026.5 adds Point Track ML to PowerMesh and AdjustTrack. The new tracking mode analyses motion across a sequence rather than the frame-to-frame approach used by conventional point and planar trackers.
That’s relevant when a surface stops behaving. Cloth creases (Fashion!). Skin bends (Old Age!), Hands pass over faces (Facepalms!). Shadows move independently from the material beneath them (Are there Ghosts in here?). These are familiar ways to turn an apparently simple tracking task into an afternoon of vertex correction.
PowerMesh already handles local deformation across surfaces such as fabric and skin. Its sensitivity to fine movement also makes it vulnerable to occlusion, changing illumination and objects disappearing. Point Track ML supplies another tracking method for those cases.
The model assigns machine-learning point tracking to groups of mesh vertices and considers frames before and after the current position. Processing can advance in chunks rather than at a constant frame-by-frame rhythm because the tracker analyses a wider temporal range.
Mocha still exposes the resulting mesh for editing. Artists can adjust vertices, smooth curves and remove keyframes when the automated result needs help. Boris FX presents Point Track ML as another tracking option, not a universal replacement for planar tracking.
A clean, planar surface with a stable texture may still require nothing more exotic than the existing planar tracker. Machine learning earns its render time when the shot contains the sort of organic interference that usually produces organic corrections (e.a.: Artist needs to get involved)
Mocha Occlusion without the ritual
A traditional PowerMesh setup may require a separate roto layer for an object moving in front of the tracked surface. That layer protects the tracker from the occluder, but vertices beneath it can lose the subtle deformation that the artist wanted to capture.
Point Track ML targets that gap. It follows the wider motion of the sequence and attempts to preserve movement beneath temporary obstructions. The backpack example in the Video above (Timestamp 6:11) exposes another limitation of planar methods. As the visible surface turns away, the planar shape can stretch into the background. Mesh vertices may also lose their reference when sections leave the image. Point Track ML can predict positions beyond the visible frame and recover them when the surface returns.
Refine Mode raises the analysis resolution for difficult material. It also increases processing time. This is a practical trade rather than a free accuracy switch, which makes it better suited to selected shots than automatic use across an entire sequence.
Artists can, of course, edit the generated mesh with the existing mesh tools. A large falloff area can reposition groups of vertices while retaining the surrounding deformation. Individual PowerMesh vertices also appear in the dope sheet and Curve Editor for direct keyframe work.
A new Planar from Mesh option converts the tracked mesh movement back into planar data. This gives artists a route through shots where a planar solve struggles, but a grid of Point Track ML points remains stable. The mesh performs the difficult tracking, then the resulting motion becomes planar data that can be adjusted or exported through familiar workflows.
AdjustTrack gets an Mocha assistant
AdjustTrack sits at the end of the tracking process. It adds corrective animation to existing tracking data when a surface drifts due to motion blur, fast movement, changing references, or regions leaving the frame. It remains a correction tool. An initial poor track will still produce a poor foundation. Changing the tracking shape or motion settings may solve a problem more cleanly before AdjustTrack enters the job.
When the underlying track works for most of a shot, Point Track ML can now drive “Auto Nudge”. Artists place reference points on recognisable features, choose the correction interval and let the system analyse forwards and backwards from the reference frame.
Support grids add tracking points around an individual reference, across the tracked surface or through a wider portion of the image. These helpers provide the tracker with additional context when the primary feature blurs, changes appearance, or moves off-screen.
The generated adjustments remain editable – Refine Mode exposes higher-resolution analysis when the standard pass lacks detail. This changes the amount of repetitive work not the logic of AdjustTrack. The module still layers corrections over existing data. It can now detect and compensate for drifting reference points without requiring an artist to reposition every one by hand.
A skateboard demonstration uses four bolts as correction references. Auto Nudge adds adjustments at defined frame intervals and keeps the insertion surface aligned despite visible drift in the original spline. The result can return to a host application or leave through the standard tracking-data export.
For compositing work, that means fewer manual surface corrections before a logo, patch or cleanup element can move with the plate. It does not remove the need to inspect the track. It reduces teh amount of keyframing required when the failure follows a predictable drift.
Smaller subjects, sharper boundaries
The masking update concentrates on regions of interest. Object Brush, Matte Assist ML and Refine Matte ML each gain controls that reduce how much of the image the model must consider. Machine-learning models operate within input-resolution limits. A large plate may need to be reduced before analysis, which can discard useful detail around a small subject. Processing a tighter region allows the model to allocate more of its available resolution to the object that matters.
Object Brush now previews the likely selection while the pointer moves across the image. The preview resolution adapts to machine performance. Clicking creates an automatic region of interest around the selected area.
Auto ROI narrows the image section passed to Mask ML. This can produce tighter boundaries around legs, clothing, hands and internal gaps. Artists can disable the automatic box and draw their own region by holding the Command or Control key while dragging around the target.
The feature concentrates model attention. It does not guarantee a final matte. Difficult edges may still require spline editing or subsequent refinement, particularly when the subject contains features that resemble the background. Matte Assist ML receives Search Area controls for propagation across a sequence. Instead of looking through a reduced version of the complete image for the object in the next frame, the tool can search within a defined area around the current matte.
The fields can be keyframed. Artists can widen the search when motion increases and tighten it when the subject remains relatively still. A smaller search area retains more local image detail and can improve contours around small figures, gaps between limbs and holes inside a silhouette. The control belongs in the Classic workspace with the more advanced matte settings.
Refine without background glitter
Refine Matte ML adds Auto ROI around the existing object boundary. The region limits how far outside the matte the model looks for soft edges. This helps remove isolated background sparkles and stray fragments that do not connect to the subject. Hair, motion-softened outlines and semi-transparent boundaries can retain finer detail without inviting unrelated texture from the rest of the frame. The ROI remains adjustable.
This is a sensible control for rotoscoping. Automatic cleanup often fails in two opposite directions: a broad search collects junk, while an aggressive crop removes legitimate edge detail. An editable region gives the artist some say in that negotiation.
The masking workflow still follows three stages. Object Brush creates the initial shape. Matte Assist ML propagates it through the shot. Refine Matte ML produces softer, more detailed edges from the binary result.
Curves for every vertex
The Curve Editor now displays PowerMesh vertex positions. Artists can inspect and modify keyframes for individual vertices instead of treating the mesh as one opaque result.
That is VERY useful, after an otherwise successful machine-learning pass. A track can remain stable across most of a sequence and still contain a small bump, ploink, blurb, bork, pause or offset. Direct vertex curves let the artist smooth or delete problematic animation without rebuilding the mesh.
The editor already visualises track parameters and supports curve smoothing. Mocha Pro 2026.5 extends that inspection to mesh-based motion. The dope sheet also exposes vertex keyframes. Together, both editors keep Point Track ML within a conventional animation workflow. The model generates data, but the operator retains access to the data that affects the image.
Mattes leave in better shapes
Mocha Pro 2026.5 expands rendered-shape and matte-data exports for studio pipelines. Rendered shapes can leave as RGBA with the source clip or another rendered clip. Earlier output concentrated on straight RGB matte data. Combining image and alpha can reduce extra assembly when downstream software expects a conventional RGBA element.
OpenEXR output stores separate layer mattes in a multilayer file. Each matte can occupy its own channel rather than being merged into a single result. This suits pipelines that want one container with independently addressable masks.
Transparent Matte Colors export separates layers through colour channels. Layer controls can assign selected mattes to pure red, green or blue, producing a transparent RGB overlay that downstream compositors can split into individual masks.
Matte-data export also gains an option to disable layer-opacity keyframes for After Effects, Fusion, and Flame. This prevents unwanted opacity animation from travelling with matte data when a receiving setup does not need it, or doesn’t know what to do with it and therefore crashes.
Export additions concentrate on rendered RGBA, multilayer OpenEXR, colour-separated transparent mattes and host-specific matte data. Point Track ML data can also return to planar motion before export. Matte generation consumes enough time already. Repacking channels after export is the sort of pipeline tax that nobody includes in the bid and everybody eventually pays.
Under the hood
Boris FX also adds native Windows on Arm support to the standalone application and the Adobe plugin, among a very few toolmakers. Other host plugins are not included in this Windows ARM update, but we’ll see what happens.
Prices and licences
Subscription pricing starts at 42 Euros per month or 290 Euros per year. Mocha Pro also remains available through perpetual licences (675€), upgrade and support plans. Customers with an active Mocha Pro subscription, Boris FX Suite subscription, Vegas Pro Ultimate subscription or a current Mocha Pro upgrade and support plan receive version 2026.5 as a complimentary update. A free trial runs for 14 days after installation and registration through the Boris FX Hub.
AI with handles attached
The most production-friendly part of Mocha 2026.5 is its refusal to hide the result behind a single button. Point Track ML generates an editable mesh. PowerMesh data can become planar data. AdjustTrack corrections remain adjustable per point. Search areas can be resized and animated.
The automation helps with repetitive repair without removing operator control. That suits shots where a tracker works for 90 per cent of the sequence and then loses its dignity behind an arm, a shadow or a motion-blurred skateboard. But still, new tools and innovations should always be tested on representative footage before use in production.
Get the free trial here: https://borisfx.com/free-trial/?product=mochapro
See what else is new: https://borisfx.com/products/mocha-pro/#whats-new
