It's always better to record and render at 4k without a doubt. DLSS kind of does anti-aliasing inherently, but keep in mind that it's for graphics rendering, not live-action video. DLSS aims to solve a different problem, and it's not perfect by any means and the quality depends on a lot of factors. Nvidia's upscaling for TV's with Nvidia Shield devices is pretty good though and doesn't make the image blurrier.
In 2023 there are a number of video plugins to individually or collectively enhance & upscale clips. I have been experimenting for three years with this technology & have found ReVision FX’ RexUp & Topaz Labs’ Video AI the best products currently available. I use these products for enhancing video & scanned analogue motion film. The results rarely disappoint.
@@CGStirk 25% denoise is too much for default settings, agree. Something around 10-15% for denoise is fine, it's actually helps a bit for dealing with UA-cam compression - less banding issues and artifacts. Also ~15% sharpness added making video crisper without oversharpening.
@@CGStirk Tested Video Engancer AI right now and I'm shocked. This is the best upscaler for sure. And btw not only best upscaler, but also awesome denoiser/deblocker with new Proteus AI (it showed best results with tested animation video), any color banding is completely gone + added little "Recover Detail" and "Sharpness", so it looks crisper and detailed than original without using upscale. That's incredible.
Thanks for the tutorial. I draged ScaleUp to the video in the preview window of After Effects, set size to Fit to Comp Width (it turns out to be 200%), Denoise to 0% and Sharpening to 15%, then exported using Media Encoder CC. After checking the exported mp4 file, I see that it has a gray 3x3 grid on top of the video. Furthermore, it seems to get stuck on the first few frames only (the audio advances, but the video does not). The video also keeps on turning red and blue cyclically after 2-3 seconds. Any ideas what I did wrong? Thanks!
The grid is the watermark. If you buy a license it goes away. With what you're describing, it could be an issue with your GPU, however, unsupported GPUs should show green, I think. Try rendering an image sequence instead of a video and see if that helps. You'd have to reimport the sequence into AE and export again with the audio. Let me know if that works.
@@CGStirk I have a serial number. How do I input it? Also my laptop has no video card. Does it mean it cannot run ScaleUp properly? The last render took only 3 hours for 5 minutes of footage though.
ScaleUp's performance is dependent on the graphics card, and I'm surprised it works at all without one. I would say that's the issue though. There should be a menu icon or "License" or "Register" button on the effect in the Effects Controls where you can input the license.
when we are looking for dcaling up , we not looking for 1080 to 4k , we looking for 640 webcam quality to maybe 1080 . sorry but this tutorial was not helpful
This is not a tutorial, but rather an overview of an upscaling software. In the examples, the videos are upscaled from 720 to 4K. The process from 640 to 1080, or to and from any resolution is the same; however, the quality of the source still needs to be good. The more information provided (resolution and compression), the better the upscale. Upscaling from 1080 to 4K will yield the best results and is one of the most common scaling requirements professionally.
Okay, it would be interesting for me to test 2D animation and even 3D renders too. I tried out VEAI and that does a better job for everything in most cases except for text. Perhaps try that.
The Sample was Too High Quality to be able to Gauge Anything. Downscale and upscale is a e.g. pseudo-upscale and doesn’t show up the limitations, you need Good Quality SD like DVD’s etc
I needed a 4K plate to compare the upscale, but yes, the type of upscaling I do as part of my job is upscaling 720 to FHD and FHD to UHD 4K. I suppose I could have done upscaling from 540 but that is quite low quality. Upscaling from lower than that is not going to yield particularly good results. As far as the comparisons here, on a 4K display there are discernable differences, though admittedly, UA-cam's compression does not help. If I had a different platform to upload to, I would link to that.
If most people, including myself, are making video for YT I'm not convinced that the cost of the software and the time it takes is beneficial to the viewers experience since YT re-processes it anyway.
I agree that UA-cam's compression can be somewhat aggressive, but the better the source, the better the reprocess. Upscaling is rather a niche topic and most people shouldn't need to use it.
I have 2 questions. 1. Why do we need to upscale videos to 4k to upload on youtube? I have a 1600x900 video , why not just make it to 1080p & 1440p then upload? 2. How you make video like at 4:03 (which show 4 screens with different resolution)
1. 4K is the standard and is replacing 1080. It's not necessary for everything, but one day we'll look back at 1080 content and scoff at it like we do with 720 and lower. For those who watch at 1080 on a 4K screen, text is inherently blurry, so I think it's important to upscale text and UI to 4K so it's more legible. Another issue is for clients. 4K delivery has been standard for many clients now for years, and it's not always possible to make all content at native 4K. So, upscaling allows you to cut corners and hopefully still deliver the image quality that the client expects. 2. The four screens were simple mattes in After Effects. Divide the comp width by four, copy it four times, and have one video aligned to each matte.
Sorry for the late reply. It really depends on the quality and resolution of the original video. Sharpness is somewhat subjective too, so you just need to play around with the settings and see what works for each particular video.
Are you using After Effects or Premiere? Premiere doesn't have the effect, so you'd have to use the AE link to access the Detail Preserving Upscale effect. Let me know if that doesn't help
@@fayyazb If the client wants a 4K comp, then you'd need to upscale all of the assets, and export them at 4K, and then reimport them back into the AE project. All of the comps and solids would need to be changed manually, though.
Without a plugin, you're best bet is the Detail Preserving Upscale effect. Set your comp to 4K (or whatever resolution you're aiming for) then add the effect to the layer you want to upscale. Fit to comp width or height and it will try to scale up and preserve quality.
Scale-up just smoothes everything even I reduce denoising to its ends it still smoothes out pixels and oh god it will take a minute to apply any changes over my gpu 😂, and I just quit upscaling a 1080P full length movie into 4K (2 hr 45Min)
If it's a film you're upscaling, then it probably looks smoother because the grain is removed if there's any smoothing applied. You'd need to reapply grain, but that's another art in itself and the default AE tools are very slow. Perhaps try out Video Enhance AI. The trial is about 5-6 weeks without a watermark. My latest video is comparing ScaleUp and VEAI.
@@CGStirk Yeah but applying grain it should match the time interpolation right or that could look fake and denoising smoothes out even details on face so I ended up doing using it and yeah tried that topaz one too 😁 it's a lil bit faster but yet it tooks days so I just not wanted to do it though it's not so important
There shouldn't be a need for interpolation unless you're altering the speed or the frame rate. There are quite a few settings for grain animation in the default AE effect though. Yeah, I would honestly just turn denoising off completely. I have no idea why it's on by default. I don't envy those render times. The longest video I tried was only 10 minutes, and unfortunately both software can be quite slow.
What nobody tells you is that using this plugin changes the export speed from e.g. taking 60 seconds to taking an eternity to the point where you will constantly question if it has perhaps hanged. An eternity that is simply unworkable for people who actaully need to get work done. I bought it, tried it and will now never use it. Be warned.
For upscaling, you want to enhance fine detail without making the image too sharp. You also want to smooth out or removing compression artifacts. Detail Preserving Upscale is better than scaling with bicubic sampling, but ScaleUp is better than both. Video Enhance AI is probably better than ScaleUp in many circumstance, but it's expensive and can be somewhat inconvenient to use.
@@CGStirk i see thank you. I kinda understand. cause after we edited in premiere pro or affter effect. We have to export the video first, then have to upscle that video in VIdeo Enhance Ai before we can upload the video on youtube. That's the the inconvenient you talked about?
@@usakoigen3683 Yes, but the main thing is if you're using image sequences with RGB. RGB input to RBG output and YUV input to YUV output is fine, but mixing them shifts the colors. Also, VEAI doesn't have a tool to custom name the frames, which is an extra step with additional renaming software.
Size doesn't matter. It's 4K UHD at 100% scaling since AE doesn't scale well for me. I usually record in a 2560x1440 window and upscale but could not for this.
This plug in did not work for me I have no idea what this guy is talking about. My vr denoiser was more powerful than this plug in, i must be doing something wrong.
![I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5EfqHg49kMk/mqdefault.jpg)
![I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!](/img/tr.png)
Damn that’s impressive. I was wondering when stuff like this would hit the market since NVidias real time up scaling hit the game market.
I can't wait for the future of AI for rendering
It's always better to record and render at 4k without a doubt. DLSS kind of does anti-aliasing inherently, but keep in mind that it's for graphics rendering, not live-action video. DLSS aims to solve a different problem, and it's not perfect by any means and the quality depends on a lot of factors. Nvidia's upscaling for TV's with Nvidia Shield devices is pretty good though and doesn't make the image blurrier.
In 2023 there are a number of video plugins to individually or collectively enhance & upscale clips. I have been experimenting for three years with this technology & have found ReVision FX’ RexUp & Topaz Labs’ Video AI the best products currently available.
I use these products for enhancing video & scanned analogue motion film. The results rarely disappoint.
I haven't tried RezUp, but VEAI is good even though it lacks features I would expect at its price point.
Checked with my work-in-progress animation and I totally agree - ScaleUP is much better than Detail Preserving Upscale.
Nice find!
Thanks. I just wish ScaleUp's default settings didn't do so much denoising as I think it puts people off when they first see the result.
@@CGStirk 25% denoise is too much for default settings, agree. Something around 10-15% for denoise is fine, it's actually helps a bit for dealing with UA-cam compression - less banding issues and artifacts. Also ~15% sharpness added making video crisper without oversharpening.
The one thing I wish they had is grain since denoising removes it. VEAI has an option to add grain back in, but AE's grain is pretty slow to render.
@@CGStirk Tested Video Engancer AI right now and I'm shocked. This is the best upscaler for sure. And btw not only best upscaler, but also awesome denoiser/deblocker with new Proteus AI (it showed best results with tested animation video), any color banding is completely gone + added little "Recover Detail" and "Sharpness", so it looks crisper and detailed than original without using upscale. That's incredible.
@@CGStirk Also awesome that VEAI has Prores 4444 XQ export, so you can use upscaled file for further mastering.
"By far the best.. " lol ya sure if you close your eyes and use your imagination. After the YT compression... the difference is extremely minor.
I really should have provided the original video as a download and zoomed in. Lesson learned.
I like Detail-preserving's quality more
It's certainly the cheapest option, but some detail and edges turn to mush, unfortunately.
Considering that you're upscaling from 720p... 1080p gotta give great results!
Yep, 1080 to 2160 usually looks good
the potato camera made me tear up hahaha
Haha, yep I'm glad I left that in
Very interesting video!
Thanks! I recently had to upscale some videos so I thought I'd just make it into a demo
Great video! Thank you
Glad you liked it!
Gotta try this.. nyc video btw
Thanks! Let me know what your results are.
You actually really need to take a shot from a low resolution and upscale that.
Yes, that's what you would do in practice, but for the sake of testing the software, I needed a baseline with which to compare the upscale.
Thanks for the tutorial. I draged ScaleUp to the video in the preview window of After Effects, set size to Fit to Comp Width (it turns out to be 200%), Denoise to 0% and Sharpening to 15%, then exported using Media Encoder CC. After checking the exported mp4 file, I see that it has a gray 3x3 grid on top of the video. Furthermore, it seems to get stuck on the first few frames only (the audio advances, but the video does not). The video also keeps on turning red and blue cyclically after 2-3 seconds. Any ideas what I did wrong? Thanks!
The grid is the watermark. If you buy a license it goes away. With what you're describing, it could be an issue with your GPU, however, unsupported GPUs should show green, I think. Try rendering an image sequence instead of a video and see if that helps. You'd have to reimport the sequence into AE and export again with the audio. Let me know if that works.
@@CGStirk I have a serial number. How do I input it? Also my laptop has no video card. Does it mean it cannot run ScaleUp properly? The last render took only 3 hours for 5 minutes of footage though.
ScaleUp's performance is dependent on the graphics card, and I'm surprised it works at all without one. I would say that's the issue though. There should be a menu icon or "License" or "Register" button on the effect in the Effects Controls where you can input the license.
@@CGStirk Thanks. I found the way to register and the watermarks are gone. Will try again soon. Thanks so much!
You're welcome
when we are looking for dcaling up , we not looking for 1080 to 4k , we looking for 640 webcam quality to maybe 1080 . sorry but this tutorial was not helpful
This is not a tutorial, but rather an overview of an upscaling software. In the examples, the videos are upscaled from 720 to 4K. The process from 640 to 1080, or to and from any resolution is the same; however, the quality of the source still needs to be good. The more information provided (resolution and compression), the better the upscale. Upscaling from 1080 to 4K will yield the best results and is one of the most common scaling requirements professionally.
I could not get it to look good with 1080p 2d animation going to 4k. Edges of lines are either really blocky or too blurred when moving the sliders.
Okay, it would be interesting for me to test 2D animation and even 3D renders too. I tried out VEAI and that does a better job for everything in most cases except for text. Perhaps try that.
Great job!!!!! wow!!!
Thank you 👍
I am watching the video in 240p and can't tell the difference
😂
The Sample was Too High Quality to be able to Gauge Anything. Downscale and upscale is a e.g. pseudo-upscale and doesn’t show up the limitations, you need Good Quality SD like DVD’s etc
I needed a 4K plate to compare the upscale, but yes, the type of upscaling I do as part of my job is upscaling 720 to FHD and FHD to UHD 4K. I suppose I could have done upscaling from 540 but that is quite low quality. Upscaling from lower than that is not going to yield particularly good results. As far as the comparisons here, on a 4K display there are discernable differences, though admittedly, UA-cam's compression does not help. If I had a different platform to upload to, I would link to that.
Been trying to upscale with detail preserve, but it wont use my gpu. Project setting>mercury hardware accel is on
It's probably a CPU-limited effect.
If most people, including myself, are making video for YT I'm not convinced that the cost of the software and the time it takes is beneficial to the viewers experience since YT re-processes it anyway.
I agree that UA-cam's compression can be somewhat aggressive, but the better the source, the better the reprocess. Upscaling is rather a niche topic and most people shouldn't need to use it.
if i watch video in ae - everethin is works, but during render and after render parts video where i use scaleup
stay small.. can you help me?
Are you rendering in AE's render queue or the Media Encoder? Have you tried rendering directly in AE and also purging the memory and disk cache?
bro, your monitor is so big.
43" lol
Please zoom the adjustment parts
Agreed. I should have done that. Though some of the results are subtle, UA-cam's compression was worse than I expected.
I have 2 questions.
1. Why do we need to upscale videos to 4k to upload on youtube? I have a 1600x900 video , why not just make it to 1080p & 1440p then upload?
2. How you make video like at 4:03 (which show 4 screens with different resolution)
1. 4K is the standard and is replacing 1080. It's not necessary for everything, but one day we'll look back at 1080 content and scoff at it like we do with 720 and lower. For those who watch at 1080 on a 4K screen, text is inherently blurry, so I think it's important to upscale text and UI to 4K so it's more legible. Another issue is for clients. 4K delivery has been standard for many clients now for years, and it's not always possible to make all content at native 4K. So, upscaling allows you to cut corners and hopefully still deliver the image quality that the client expects.
2. The four screens were simple mattes in After Effects. Divide the comp width by four, copy it four times, and have one video aligned to each matte.
@@CGStirk thank you. I see. Have you tried Topaz Video Enhance AI? Is it better than this After Effects tool?
As a matter of fact, I have. I did a video on it: ua-cam.com/video/pcGosT-ZC30/v-deo.html
@@CGStirk thanks. I'll 100% watch it to see which one is better
@@CGStirk have you compared Video Enhance Ai & After Effect?
Hey
So if I am aiming to add more detail/ sharpness in my videos using upscale
You recommend 15% sharpness?
Sorry for the late reply. It really depends on the quality and resolution of the original video. Sharpness is somewhat subjective too, so you just need to play around with the settings and see what works for each particular video.
@@CGStirk appreciate it
A lot of my videos are in low light. I’ll start at 15% and see from there
My app don't have the " detail preserving upscale " ? I don't find it
Are you using After Effects or Premiere? Premiere doesn't have the effect, so you'd have to use the AE link to access the Detail Preserving Upscale effect. Let me know if that doesn't help
@@CGStirk I'm using AE but i don't find the Detail Preserving Upscale
@@Tiemcuaxoai._ What version of AE?
@@CGStirk I'm using AE cs6 on the window 7
@@Tiemcuaxoai._ I believe the first release came out for CC 12.1. CS6 doesn't have it I don't think.
Interesting!
Possible to upscale an AE Project from 720p or 1080p to 4K?
Yep, although I would recommend rendering an image sequence and upscaling that image sequence not the comp directly.
@@CGStirk Thank you. Would the equality be maintained? And what if the client wanted the AE Project file upscaled to 4K?
@@fayyazb If the client wants a 4K comp, then you'd need to upscale all of the assets, and export them at 4K, and then reimport them back into the AE project. All of the comps and solids would need to be changed manually, though.
Can u tell me how to get good quality without instant 4K and bcc on Ae ? And can u tell me what to use to get good quality? I really need it .
Without a plugin, you're best bet is the Detail Preserving Upscale effect. Set your comp to 4K (or whatever resolution you're aiming for) then add the effect to the layer you want to upscale. Fit to comp width or height and it will try to scale up and preserve quality.
I'm confused about the render times, you give us numbers but you don't say if these are minutes or hours? Good video otherwise.
Apologies. It's minutes and seconds (MM:SS)
@@CGStirk No worries mate! Thanks for the reply!
@@misterwhyte Sure! No problem!
Scale-up just smoothes everything even I reduce denoising to its ends it still smoothes out pixels and oh god it will take a minute to apply any changes over my gpu 😂, and I just quit upscaling a 1080P full length movie into 4K (2 hr 45Min)
If it's a film you're upscaling, then it probably looks smoother because the grain is removed if there's any smoothing applied. You'd need to reapply grain, but that's another art in itself and the default AE tools are very slow. Perhaps try out Video Enhance AI. The trial is about 5-6 weeks without a watermark. My latest video is comparing ScaleUp and VEAI.
@@CGStirk Yeah but applying grain it should match the time interpolation right or that could look fake and denoising smoothes out even details on face so I ended up doing using it and yeah tried that topaz one too 😁 it's a lil bit faster but yet it tooks days so I just not wanted to do it though it's not so important
There shouldn't be a need for interpolation unless you're altering the speed or the frame rate. There are quite a few settings for grain animation in the default AE effect though. Yeah, I would honestly just turn denoising off completely. I have no idea why it's on by default. I don't envy those render times. The longest video I tried was only 10 minutes, and unfortunately both software can be quite slow.
@@CGStirk yes :(
Alas :(
It is not much better than using the built-in Upscale with a simple Sharp effect in After Effects. Not worth the processing time.
This is old. I would recommend VEAI for faster and better upscaling.
@@CGStirkwat is that ? I can't find it
Video Enhance AI is a standalone software@@diptipande5786
Nice video, but please use a less distracting sample clip next time so I can pay attention.
You may need to watch again to take it all in 😆
What nobody tells you is that using this plugin changes the export speed from e.g. taking 60 seconds to taking an eternity to the point where you will constantly question if it has perhaps hanged. An eternity that is simply unworkable for people who actaully need to get work done. I bought it, tried it and will now never use it. Be warned.
It's definitely hardware dependent and not the most efficient process. There is a trial, though, to test it before purchasing.
@@CGStirk Yeah, I was overenthusiastic and made that mistake of buying before testing. Oh well, maybe I will find a use for it one day.
Does this also can do better job in sharpening without upscaling compared to built in sharpening tool?
No. You have to set an upscale resolution on the file for ScaleUp to start working.
which method is the best? I dont what should i look up for knowing for upscaling
For upscaling, you want to enhance fine detail without making the image too sharp. You also want to smooth out or removing compression artifacts. Detail Preserving Upscale is better than scaling with bicubic sampling, but ScaleUp is better than both. Video Enhance AI is probably better than ScaleUp in many circumstance, but it's expensive and can be somewhat inconvenient to use.
@@CGStirk y0u are saying about after effect,right? thank you
Yes, but Video Enhance AI is separate software.
@@CGStirk i see thank you. I kinda understand. cause after we edited in premiere pro or affter effect. We have to export the video first, then have to upscle that video in VIdeo Enhance Ai before we can upload the video on youtube. That's the the inconvenient you talked about?
@@usakoigen3683 Yes, but the main thing is if you're using image sequences with RGB. RGB input to RBG output and YUV input to YUV output is fine, but mixing them shifts the colors. Also, VEAI doesn't have a tool to custom name the frames, which is an extra step with additional renaming software.
bro wut is the size of ur monitor
Size doesn't matter. It's 4K UHD at 100% scaling since AE doesn't scale well for me. I usually record in a 2560x1440 window and upscale but could not for this.
@@CGStirk does instant 4k work nicely?
@@aurkoedits1576 I've never used it and it doesn't appear to be available anymore.
This plug in did not work for me I have no idea what this guy is talking about. My vr denoiser was more powerful than this plug in, i must be doing something wrong.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help. If you just want to do denoising, I recommend Neat Video.
i see no difference in the whole comparisons.
That sucks
Не впечатлило! Ерунда.
Okay, sorry you feel that way. Unfortunately youtube's compression doesn't help with the comparisons though. Try the demo for yourself.