Just realized that AI upscaling tool I hated is actually pretty good now

I was super against Topaz Gigapixel for like a year because the early versions made everything look fake and plastic. But last week I tried version 7.2 on a old 800x600 painting I had from 2018 and the detail it pulled out of the brushstrokes was wild. Anyone else have a tool they wrote off too early and came back to?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_palmer4428d ago

Hold up, when you say it pulled detail out of brushstrokes, are you talking about actual texture like canvas grain and paint thickness, or did it just sharpen the edges and call it a day? I had an older version of Gigapixel that tried to "enhance" a watercolor piece of mine and it turned the soft washes into this weird pixelated mush.

piperbailey28d ago

The REAL test is whether it understands the art medium or just applies a generic sharpening filter. That watercolor example you mentioned is exactly the kind of thing I'd be WORRIED about with these tools. What version did you use and what were your actual settings? Because in my experience with the new Gigapixel, the "art & illustration" mode actually treats watercolor differently than oil or acrylic now. It stops trying to add fake canvas texture where there isnt any and just focuses on the pigment edges. I had to dig through like five different AI models in the dropdown to find the right one though so maybe you just got the wrong preset. Did you try the "line art" or "comic" modes for stuff with softer gradients or did you just let it auto-detect?

tara64228d ago

Wait, are you saying the version matters that much for watercolor? I've been holding off on updating because I heard the new one was buggy. But I have to say, what you said about the pigment edges makes a lot of sense to me. I used the old Gigapixel on a watercolor I did of a sunset and it turned the soft sky into this grainy mess. It looked like someone had sprinkled sand on the wet paint. @piperbailey probably knows what I'm talking about when I say that was a complete waste of time. I think if I had paid more attention to the preset options I might have gotten better results, but honestly I just let it auto-detect and that was my mistake.