When creating AI Art, the resolution of the images you get can be pretty crummy. So AI upscaling is essential, and you need to invest in a solid AI Upscaler like Topaz Gigapixel to enlarge your images.
AI Art is typically around the 1024 x 1024px size (at 1:1 aspect ratio), but you can 4x, 6x or refeed your upscales and get images up to 20,000 x 20,000px in some cases!
I’m going to share with you some results I got from Topaz Gigapixel’s redefine mode.
Essentially, what it does is enlarges the images and uses AI to generate further details. But there’s also some other ways you can take you images above and beyond even further.
Also note, that the links to Topaz Gigapixel in this post are affiliate that. links I earn commission from.
Want to see Gigapixel in action?
If you want to see it all in action, check out this video on YouTube.
Or check out Topaz Gigapixel here.
How powerful is Topaz Gigapixel AI Upscaling technology?
Essentially, you can upscale your images by 6x. But you can also upscale your upscaled images to go further.
Before I get into that though, let’s look at a few images so I can show you what results i got with 4x Redefine upscale on some images from Midjourney – as well as a photo.
The Grizzled Old Warrior
MIdjourney AI Art Upscale
This was a major test of the upscaler as it had a number of details. He really did a great job with the grain, hair sharpening up the skin details. But I also experimented with various levels of creativity.
I have the two (original and Topaz Upscaled) images below, but they are such big images, I couldn’t upload every variation. As you increase creativity, thinhs gets sharper and details are more enhanced but you walk a little further away from the original.
So I did this little section up to show the eye from lowest detail, to highest:
Comparing Creativity Levels:
If you want to see the full images from the original banner above, you can view them both below for a full comparison
See Original Here | See Full Upscale Here
You need to find the balance. Creativity can make for an impressive upscale, but go too far and the image won’t match closely enough. But experimenting with this settings is what will get you the best results.
Another drawback? Redefine takes a long time to process.
My computer takes about 15minutes to produce an image around the 4000 – 5000px size (long edge). The larger you go the exponentially longer it takes. But you can also process in the cloud for an additional cost.
Check out Topaz Gigapixel here!
GigerFace
Midjourney AI Art Upscale
This is another example of how the texture and image was increased with a simple 3x redefine upscale. I wanted to just highlight that above quickly as a strong example in a similar method to the Grizzled Warrior.
Comic Samurai
Midjourney Illustration Style Upscale
This image show how you can also upscale and clean up illustrations (whether AI Art or not).
Notice the original is not only pixelated, but noisy? You can increase the denoise settings on Topaz Gigapixel and produce some nice, clean illustrations like above.
Check out Topaz Gigapixel here!
Me & Royce Gracie
Photograph Upscale with Face Recovery
I had this photo taken over 1o years ago and never received a high resolution version worthy of print. But with the Redefine and face recovery, the result on my face (and Royce’s) was outstanding.
When you consider how pixelated the source is, the result is really impressive!
Two types of AI Upscale models
So there are two types of upscaling models in Topaz Gigapixel – Basic or Generative.
- Basic – is more subtle, adds detail using AI but keeps the image appearance pretty much identical.
This is great for photos that need to be virtually identical, or if the image is very clean and has little texture. Add the Face filter (like above) and the results are quite good. - Generative – uses AI Art style models to re-render the image, so you can get far greater increases in quality and detail but the trade off is that the image can change. However, the Recover option changes very little and keeps things almost identical.
As mentioned before, the more detail it adds, the mode the image changes. This can be undesirable for photos of people, but really great for AI Art or photos of scenery and other elements that don’t necessarily need to be identical.
Recover can be a good balance between Standard and Redefine’s increased creativity.
An Indepth look at these upscaling models
The basic models have few profiles for certain image types:
- Standard – A profile designed to add a lot of detail and work on most images
- High Fidelity – A speciality profile that is great and improving alreayd high resolution images but taking them to that next level.
- Low res – Designed for enlarging smaller images without warping them, but adds less detail.
- Text & Shape – Perfect for cleaner images with shapes, text and straighter lights.
- Art & CG – Aims to keep the super clean CG feel to images that are designed to be upscaled in a clean way, with less texture.
Generative Models are:
- Recover – uses Ai to the maximum without changing the appearance in any way. It’s the best model for realistic upscales and good texture
- Redefine – a more creative model that creates the sharpest possible images, but with the risk of the image looking a little different. Its the most powerful upscaler as it uses the most freedom to upscale the images, but the freedom is responsible for the changing nature that produces the crispest details.
Check out Topaz Gigapixel here!
Let’s compare some of these AI Upscaling models
This comparison isn’t perfect, as each model is intended for a different kind of image. But to compare the difference, let’s take this image, (open in the Gigapixel interface):
Each model handles the image differently, as described above.
But this image of the dog has been cropped, to show nose texture, hair but also a clean sharp lined shape int eh edge of the sunglasses. Below I have a cropped 4x upscale of each.
Keep in mind, there are various settings to sharpen, denoise and image aspects of the upscale but it’s bit to too much to cover here.
I have ordered them from least detailed upscale to most detailed (click to view larger image in new tab):
Notice the detail increase?
One big difference is the Art & CG, Text & Shapes, and Low res models all soften strategically to get the best upscale whilst avoid what could potentially be unrealistic textures being added.
Standard and High Fidelity create good textures when viewed at a glance, but a close inspection shows they aren’t quite natural. However, for most images, especially in print, this will look good which is why I still love to use them.
Recover can have texture added, but it is more natural in it’s texturizing whilst Redefine is by far the best for all details, but it is still an AI interpretation of what should be there.
But for best results, each image you AI upscale should be tested on these and you will get a feel for it.
Check out Topaz Gigapixel here!
The AI Upscaling Process I recommend for most images & Ai Art
Redefine can take quite a long time to process, but it beyond a certain size, it’s unnecessary.
If you are viewing an image, you can only notice so much detail, but you may notice if its fuzzy. So a basic upscale beyond a certain size is a great idea. But also, if you are generating AI Art, you are better off starting with upscaling your image in there first.
So for best results:
- Upscale your image in your AI Art platform
- Download it, then upscale in Gigapixel using Redefine – going no bigger than roughly 4000×5000 ish pixels in dimensions (so it doesn’t take forevever)
- Then take that redefine upscaled image, and bring it in again – but use High Fidelity or another basic upscaler for maximum results.
Here’s an example
This is image was downloaded from Midjourney, then upscaled with Redefine (see red outline for the area I am zooming in on):
The Redefine upscale looks amazing! The details on the car and the leaves are super sharp. But if we wanted to make this image GIGANTIC. Topaz can handle upscale up to roughly 20,000 pixels on the long edge.
So I popped the Redefine Upscaled image into Topaz and ran a High Fidelity Upscale.
Here’s how that looks:
It’s not as impressive, but it has still added detail. It has smoothed it out and it doesn’t look perfect…
..,but remember this is the full image (link will open redefine upscale – 19000px image is too big for web use):
Considering we are viewing this as the full image, that tiny detail is far more than we’d ever need. So this is the process I use and recommend to maximize you results.
Check out Topaz Gigapixel here!
It’s not perfect, but I love this tool!
Topaz Gigapixel is a really powerful tool to have in any designer, photographer or AI Art arsenol.
The ability to take relatively small images, not suitable for larger display or even small printing, to a useable image completely sharpened and detail added is impressive.
I’ve tried many other upscales and Topaz Gigapixel is the best.
Sometimes you get small artifacts, but when viewed from the distance it supposed to be, often they aren’t a problem – or you can easily fix it in Photoshop of something if you need absolutely perfection.
Check it out today to see what images of yours can be taken to the next level!
If you want to see it all in action, check out this video on YouTube.
