Mocha Pro vs the After Effects Tracker — what After Effects already does, and the jobs that need Mocha Pro

Start with what is already on your machine. After Effects comes with several tools for motion, clean-up and cut-outs, and a lot of paid work never needs more. Each one below is described the way Adobe’s own help pages describe it, limits included.

• The Tracker panel. Open it from Window > Tracker. Each track point has a feature region, a search region and an attach point. Track Motion applies the data to another layer; Stabilize Motion applies it to the tracked layer itself to cancel shake. One point tracks position, two add scale and rotation, and corner pins use Parallel Corner Pin with three points and no perspective, or Perspective Corner Pin with four.
• The mask tracker. It moves a mask to follow an object and writes Mask Path keyframes. One of its seven methods, Perspective, is described by Adobe as a planar tracker that solves corner-pin transformations, and two methods track faces. The object should keep the same shape through the clip, and the tracker is not available on Adjustment, Text, Solid or Shape layers.
• 3D Camera Tracker. It analyses the footage in the background and extracts the camera move and 3D scene data, so text, solids, nulls and shadow catchers can sit inside the shot. You can set a ground plane and origin, give it hints such as Tripod Pan or Mostly Flat Scene, and export the result to Cinema 4D.
• Warp Stabilizer. Applied from Effects & Presets > Distort, it removes jitter caused by camera movement. Subspace Warp is the default method, with Position, then Position, Scale and Rotation, then Perspective as simpler alternatives. It can keep some movement with Smooth Motion or remove it with No Motion, and it has rolling-shutter ripple reduction.
• Next-Gen Roto Brush. Version 3.0 of the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect, and the default. You paint foreground and background strokes on one frame, propagate, then freeze. Adobe says its new AI model selects and tracks objects better than Roto Brush 2, including overlapping limbs, hair and transparency.
• Content-Aware Fill. It removes unwanted objects by filling a transparent area with pixels built from other frames. You make that area first, with a mask set to Subtract or a Roto Brush matte, choose Object, Surface or Edge Blend, and the fill is rendered as an image sequence.
• Mocha AE. The Boris FX plug-in bundled with After Effects, which Adobe describes as GPU-accelerated with Multi-Frame Rendering support. You launch it from Animation > Track in Boris FX Mocha. Results come back as Corner Pin or Transform data, as native masks that drop Mocha’s edge feathering, or as a matte that keeps it.

Adobe is candid about the limits. Its help pages say automatic tracking is rarely perfect: when a feature changes too much, the track point drifts and has to be corrected and analysed again. Moving objects can confuse the 3D Camera Tracker. Subspace Warp can introduce unwanted warping, and Warp Stabilizer ignores masks and effects applied to the same layer, so you precompose first. Content-Aware Fill may give mixed results on complex moving textures such as water, and strong lighting correction can struggle with flickering light.

None of that is a reason to buy a plug-in. It is a list of the moments to stop fighting the built-in tools and look at what else exists. For a phone screen held flat, a poster on a wall, a handheld walk or a presenter to cut out, After Effects and Mocha AE are often enough, and they cost nothing extra.

A point tracker follows a small patch of pixels that you choose: the corner of a window, a mark on a wall, a button on a jacket. It works frame by frame, looking for that same patch inside the search region. Adobe says that when the tracked feature changes too much, the track point drifts and has to be corrected and analysed again.

A planar tracker follows a flat surface as a whole. Blackmagic describes its planar tracker as a tool for flat surfaces such as signs and screens, and Adobe describes the mask tracker’s Perspective method as a planar tracker that solves corner-pin transformations. Mocha is built on the same idea: Boris FX describes GPU-accelerated planar tracking as the foundation of every other tool in Mocha Pro.

The difference shows most clearly in corner pins. With the point tracker you place four separate points, and Adobe says all four feature regions should lie on one real-world plane. A planar track treats that plane as one surface from the start. Blackmagic and Maxon both name signs and screens as the job for their planar tools, and Boris FX names screen inserts for Mocha Pro’s Insert module.

• Use the point tracker when one or two clear details stay visible and you only need position, scale or rotation.
• Use a planar track when the thing you follow is flat and must keep its perspective: a phone screen, a shop sign, a poster, a laptop lid.
• Use neither for 3D. When new elements must sit inside a moving scene, you need a camera solve: the 3D Camera Tracker in After Effects, or the 3D Camera Solver in Mocha Pro.
• Do not buy Mocha Pro for planar tracking alone. Mocha AE already does it, and so does the mask tracker’s Perspective method.

Planar tracking is not unique to Boris FX either. Red Giant’s King Pin Tracker is a planar corner-pin tracker that runs in After Effects only and is sold by Maxon on subscription, through Red Giant or Maxon One. ROSH™ Company Labs does not sell Red Giant; the Boris FX Suite vs Red Giant comparison covers that choice in full.

Mocha AE is a free, lighter version of Mocha Pro’s planar tracking and masking tools, and it runs only as an After Effects plug-in. Boris FX publishes the split itself, across a comparison page, a comparison table on the Mocha AE page and a support article. The core is shared: planar tracking, roto and masking. The Mocha AE table also ticks GPU acceleration and macOS and Windows support for both versions.

One row needs care. Boris FX’s comparison page lists the AdjustTrack module as Mocha Pro only, while the table on the Mocha AE page ticks AdjustTrack for both versions and marks an improved AdjustTrack, along with Multi-Frame Rendering support, as new in Mocha AE. Adobe’s help says Mocha AE users reach AdjustTrack through Workspace > Classic, while a 2023 Boris FX blog post gives Mocha AE the Essentials interface only. Because the sources disagree, open Mocha AE and look for AdjustTrack before you count it as a reason to upgrade.

Two caveats keep that table honest. The Pro column on the Mocha AE page is labelled Mocha Pro 2022, so check Boris FX’s current comparison before you rely on a single row. And newer releases are announced for Mocha Pro: the Mocha Pro 2026 announcement lists Matte Refine ML for fine hair and motion-blur edges, a Refine Solve tool for cleaning up camera and object solves, and a rebuilt Curve Editor, and it says nothing about Mocha AE.

Read the table as a list of jobs, not a feature race. If none of those rows describes work that someone pays you for, Mocha AE is the right tool, and it is already installed with After Effects.

Mocha AE lives inside After Effects and nowhere else. Mocha Pro runs as a plug-in or as a standalone application, and for anyone who edits outside After Effects, that difference comes before any module.

• Premiere Pro. Premiere has its own mask tracking, with Position, Scale and Rotation or Perspective, and for more advanced tracking Adobe suggests sending the sequence to After Effects through Dynamic Link. Running Mocha inside Premiere requires Mocha Pro. Boris FX says its Adobe plug-in launches from both After Effects and Premiere Pro, so an editor can use Mocha shapes and modules without that round trip.
• Other plug-in hosts. The Mocha Pro product page lists Avid Media Composer, and Autodesk Flame, Boris FX Silhouette, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Fusion, VEGAS Pro and SGO Mistika as OFX hosts.
• Standalone. Mocha Pro also runs as its own application on macOS, Windows and Linux. Boris FX lists exports of tracking and roto data for Premiere Pro, Nuke, Fusion, Flame, FBX, Alembic and more, so the work can move on to another program.
• Inside the rest of Boris FX Suite. Boris FX builds Mocha tracking into every Continuum effect and Mocha planar tracking and masking into Sapphire effects, and Silhouette includes a Mocha Pro node. The guide to every tool in Boris FX Suite explains what each of those applications is for.

A note for DaVinci Resolve users: the host list on the Mocha Pro product page does not name Resolve, and Boris FX’s own pages are not consistent on this point. Blackmagic’s Fusion page describes built-in 2D, planar and 3D camera trackers in Resolve, although its training material ties 3D camera tracking to Resolve Studio. If Resolve is where you work, read Boris FX’s current specifications before paying for anything.

No After Effects at all? Then Mocha AE is not an option, and a free route is worth an evening before any purchase. Blender’s motion tracker does camera, object and plane tracking and can drive masks for rotoscoping, and Blender is free software that can be used for any purpose, commercial work included. Its manual is also clear about the limits: lens distortion is calibrated manually or with outside tools.

The offer on this page is the full Boris FX Suite, which Boris FX lists with 11 products, at 999 MAD · 1 Year from ROSH™ Company Labs. Mocha Pro comes as part of it. For the jobs on this page, the tools that matter in that bundle are Mocha Pro, Silhouette for roto, paint and compositing, SynthEyes for 3D camera tracking and matchmoving, and Sapphire and Continuum, which both carry Mocha tracking inside their effects.

Ordering works the same from Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Tangier or anywhere else in Morocco. You message ROSH™ Company Labs on WhatsApp, pay with a local method agreed in the chat, and receive the licence digitally once payment is confirmed. Installation and activation help happens on WhatsApp, with a reply within 24 hours for the whole year. Renewal is manual and is arranged on WhatsApp before the year ends. The Boris FX Suite price guide covers what 999 MAD includes, and the activation guide shows what setting it up involves.

Test before you pay. Boris FX offers free trials of every Suite product through the Boris FX Hub, its free app for installing, licensing and trialling its software. You sign in with or create a free Boris FX account, and no payment information is needed. Mocha Pro’s trial is fully functional for 14 days, then reverts to a limited Learning Edition with watermarked renders and exports limited to 10 frames. Run it on the shot that is giving you trouble in After Effects. If Mocha AE already solves that shot, keep your money.

Who should upgrade, plainly:

• Editors who need Mocha inside Premiere Pro, Avid or Nuke: Mocha Pro, because Mocha AE does not run there.
• Compositors who remove objects, wires or signs week after week: Mocha Pro, for the Remove module and Mega Plate.
• Motion designers doing flat screen inserts and the occasional cut-out: stay on After Effects and Mocha AE.
• Anyone who needs camera solves as well as roto and clean-up: the Suite, which adds SynthEyes and Silhouette on top of Mocha Pro.
• Students and hobbyists: Mocha AE if you have After Effects, Blender if you do not.

For the wider money question, Is Boris FX Suite worth it? weighs who earns the licence back and who should stay on free or bundled tools.

Before you order: ROSH™ Company Labs is an independent brand, not a registered company. It is not affiliated with, authorised by, sponsored by or endorsed by Boris FX or Adobe. It issues no tax invoice, and purchases are made at the client’s own risk. If you need a tax invoice for your accounts, buy from Boris FX instead.