Topaz Video AI Quick Start Guide v3.0 & v3.1

Welcome to Topaz Video AI 

This article will guide you through your first experience with Topaz Video AI, starting with an overview of why we created this major update, how to set yourself up for success, and walk you through your first time previewing and processing an individual video and a batch of video files. 

Table of Contents

What is Topaz Video AI and What Happened to Video Enhance AI?

If you have been a long-time customer of Topaz Labs, you may be surprised by the number of changes to the app's user interface (UI) and functionality and you may be asking yourself, "why the big change and why now?" If so, before diving into Topaz Video AI, take a moment to review the "Why" behind this major update.

Understanding the In-App Preferences Menu

Before we get started with enhancing and upscaling your video projects, you will want to make sure that the in-app preferences are set up for optimal performance. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with Topaz Video AI's Preference menu.

Upscaling and Enhancing an Individual Video File

Let's start enhancing and upscaling an individual video file using a popular Preset option. 

To get started simply drag and drop the video or image sequence file(s) you wish to work with directly into the app or select the " Browse," option. 

 If you would like to add additional videos at any point, you can drag and drop the files onto the app's interface or you can click on the "+" icon.

Selecting Presets

Choose from one of our Presets or select the appropriate parameters for your file. For this guide, we will be using the  Upscale to 4k preset. Clicking on the drop-down arrow will reveal the list of Presets that come ready for you to use. 

Right away you will notice that the right-hand side of the app's interface has changed. Under the Video Out menu option, we can see the output size of our file will be 3840 x 2160 and the Enhancement filter has been activated with the Proteus model selected.

When a filter is activated, the area will turn from black to dark gray.

Scrubbing the Timeline

You can move the play head to a specific point in your video file by dragging the play head or by manually entering a specific timestamp into the box below the timeline. 

Previewing 

In order to see what the output file will look like, we will want to select the Preview option to render a short segment of the file. You can change the length of the Preview, however, the longer the Preview, the longer the wait time will be since this is processing a segment of your file.

For our purposes, I have selected a two-second Preview. 

You will see that the model is downloaded, loaded, and then the model initializes and finally renders. You will see an estimate of how long the preview will take. 

You will know that the Preview has been rendered and is ready for playback once you see the green check mark to the right of the time that the Preview took to generate. 

View Modes 

There are three view modes for the Preview/ Export portion of this app.

The first option will show a full-screen preview, the second will show a side-by-side preview comparing the input and the output file, and the final option will allow you to use a slider to reveal the output file by moving the slider to the left or to the right.

Zooming In to Examine the Results

You can zoom into the video to really see the difference between the two files by sliding the zoom bar to the right, manually entering in a zoom percentage, or choosing Fit, 100%, or 200%.

Previewing with an External Media Player

You can also watch the Preview on the media player of your choice by clicking on the triple dot icon and selecting Open in External Player.

Exporting a File

Once you are happy with the intended output, you will select the Export button. A quick note about this button; if you select the dropdown carrot you can choose from Export, which will save the file to the input files location or you can select Export As to alter the location of the saved file. For this example, I will choose Export As.

Navigating Between Previews and Exports

Now, you will see a rendered Preview and an Output file that is currently rendering.

These are differentiated with an " E" for Export and a "P" for Preview. You can also change the view from "All Outputs," to only viewing the "Export" queue. 

Batch Processing

To Batch process, on Mac ( command + click), on Windows right-click and select the files you wish to work with. The files that are selected will appear brighter than the files that are not. 

Next, select the filters you want to activate. For this example we will upscale to HD, using the Artemis High-Quality Model, with ProRes 422 HQ as the encoder.

First, select HD from the Out menu option to set the batch up to be upscaled. Next, turn on the Enhance Filter and select Artemis from the first drop-down menu and then choose the quality that corresponds to the batch, here I selected High Quality. 

At the bottom of the Filters menu, you will want to select the Encoder you wish to use, for this example, I have chosen ProRes 422 HQ.

Next to the Preview, you will see the number of video files that have been selected. I will start off by selecting Preview and generating 6 individual previews before choosing Export. 

If you are curious to know which filter is being applied in what order, check out this article. 
Looking for instructions for using the Command Line Interface? 

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