Topaz Labs confirmed that from 3 October 2025, its software will no longer be sold under perpetual licences. Current perpetual customers keep their licences, but no new perpetual purchases will be possible after this date. Products affected are Topaz Gigapixel, Topaz Photo, and Topaz Video (formerly Gigapixel AI, Photo AI, and Video AI). Until the October deadline, perpetual licences remain available at $99, $199, and $299 respectively.

Subscriptions only

After the deadline, the only way to access future versions is via subscription. Topaz calls out “founding customers” with active upgrade plans. They will receive discounts on Studio subscriptions and additional access privileges. The company has not specified the size of the discounts.
Pricing announced:

• Topaz Gigapixel: $29/month or $149/year, Pro plan $499/year
• Topaz Photo: $39/month or $199/year, Pro plan $599/year
• Topaz Video: $59/month or $299/year, Pro plan $699/year

The shift mirrors the launch of Topaz Studio, a subscription-only bundle that combines all three applications.

What Studio brings

According to the official Topaz Labs forum statement, Studio includes seven products and access to over 100 AI models. Local and cloud-based image processing is bundled without extra cost. New AI models debuting inside Studio include Wonder, Standard MAX, Starlight Sharp, and Nyx XL. Models in development include Face Realism, Subject Preservation, and Mosaic.

What this means in production

For postproduction artists, the switch means one-off investments are replaced by recurring costs. Existing perpetual licences continue to function, but users will need a subscription for updates and new features.

The post Topaz drops perpetual licences, bets on subscriptions with Studio launch first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Topaz Bloom isn’t a plugin, a desktop app, or a GPU hog—it’s a browser-based upscaler that runs entirely in the cloud. You upload a JPG or PNG, pick your settings, and the upscaling happens on Topaz‘s servers. Bloom targets AI-generated and CG artwork specifically, leaving traditional photography to its relatives, Gigapixel and Photo AI.

Diffusion Does the Heavy Lifting

Unlike old-school upscalers that simply inflate images with interpolation, Bloom uses in-house diffusion models to generate new detail. This is what Topaz calls “creative upscaling”—and yes, it’s hopefully more than marketing. Depending on your input, Bloom can hallucinate textures, edges, and forms that weren’t in the original.

Prompt or Don’t

Prompt-guided enhancement is optional. If you’ve got something specific in mind (“cyberpunk ruins at dusk”), type it in. If not, leave it blank and Bloom’s model will work from the image itself. You can always do another pass if the diffusion engine gets too interpretive.

Five Levels of AI Mischief

Bloom’s slider moves through Subtle, Low, Medium, High, and Max. These levels affect how aggressively the model invents new detail. At High and Max, you can enable recursive detail generation—effectively allowing the model to loop back and add even finer features. It’s the kind of setting you test once, then maaaaaaaybe tentatively trust later.

Four Variants? Settle the Debate Before Lunch

Bloom lets you generate and compare up to four image variants at once. This feature’s built for the overworked: art directors, supervisors, storyboard artists and anyone who needs to show options fast without starting from scratch. Think A/B testing but with quadruplets.

Upscale up to 8×

Bloom allows image scaling from 1× to 8×—just type in your desired output or click the preset buttons. The result is a high-res version padded with diffusion-based textures and structure, not blurry smears. This puts it firmly in the realm of concept art upscaling, render patching, and post-fix workflows.

Pricing: Test Before You Trust

The free plan lets you run up to ten upscales per month—handy for testing whether Bloom can handle your style of input or doesn’t panic at fire, fur, or fog. For unlimited processing, paid tiers are available—check the official page for details.

Not for Photos. That’s Gigapixel’s Job

Topaz clearly separates Bloom from its photo-oriented siblings. Bloom is built from the ground up to interpret and upscale AI and CG-generated imagery. For real-world photography or restoration, the company points back to Gigapixel and Photo AI.

Trust Issues? Good.

As with any diffusion-powered tool, production artists should run Bloom through a proper gauntlet before slotting it into the pipeline. Check for artefacts. Stress test edge cases. Use it on background plates before you let it near hero assets. The output may sparkle, but trust is earned—especially when deadlines glare.

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Bloom won’t replace your renderer, but it might save your preview. Or your plate. Or your nerves. And it does it all from a browser window—no install, no GPU tantrums, just pixels, prompts, and possibly four different versions of the same cat.

The post Topaz’s Web-Based Upscaler gets “Creative” first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

SGO has rolled out a major update to its post-production software Mistika Boutique and Mistika Ultima, and it’s all about color, clarity, and control. Leading the charge is the industry-first integration of ACES 2.0, the latest evolution of the Academy Color Encoding System. This marks Mistika as the first post-production solution to officially support ACES 2.0, enabling a real-time, user-friendly implementation of this next-gen color management pipeline. Color workflows now benefit from increased efficiency and usability, allowing artists to take full advantage of ACES 2.0’s capabilities directly in their grading and mastering environments. Real-time ACES without the usual headaches? Yes, please.

Deinterlacing with AI: From Legacy to Luxury

Dealing with interlaced broadcast content? Mistika’s new AI-powered deinterlacing feature aims to redefine the workflow. This proprietary AI algorithm is engineered to maintain high fidelity, reduce artifacts, and generally outperform conventional deinterlacing approaches in both quality and speed. SGO is clearly aiming to make legacy content handling less of a legacy headache—particularly for broadcasters and post houses working with archival or interlaced material.

Topaz Labs OFX: AI Enhancement Built In

Integration with Topaz Labs’ OFX plugins is also now part of Mistika Boutique and Ultima. That means users can now access Topaz’s AI-driven tools—sharpening, noise reduction, upscaling, and more—directly within Mistika’s interface. No round-tripping, no plugin gymnastics, just streamlined access to powerful media enhancement tools inside the same environment. Professionals seeking high-end results can now incorporate Topaz’s AI models as part of their existing workflows, without leaving the software.

SDK Support: ARRI V8, Blackmagic SDK 4.3, and Python

On the SDK front, Mistika now includes support for ARRI’s V8 SDK and an updated Blackmagic SDK 4.3, extending compatibility to the latest URSA Cine, Panasonic BRAW, and Fujifilm BRAW formats. This broadened camera support is aimed at giving professionals increased flexibility and efficiency when ingesting and managing footage from diverse high-performance sources.

For those looking to automate and customize, Mistika’s IM2 functionality now features enhanced Python integration. This opens up options for workflow automation and custom post-production pipelines, allowing technical artists and developers to tailor Mistika to their exact pipeline needs—with less friction and more control.

Pricing and Availability

The latest version of Mistika Boutique and Ultima is already available for download from the SGO Account Portal. For a full list of stability enhancements and feature refinements, SGO recommends visiting the SGO Forums.

As with any new tech integration, especially in mission-critical environments, artists and supervisors should evaluate the stability of these features before full deployment in current production pipelines. Early adoption is great—early troubleshooting, not so much.

Mistika Boutique offers several subscription options to cater to different professional needs. The Personal Edition is available at €99 per month, while the Immersive Edition is priced at €199 per month. For those seeking more comprehensive features, the Professional Immersive Edition is offered at €299 per month. Additionally, a 90-day license for the Professional Immersive Edition is available at €1,017. Educational users can benefit from a free Educational Edition with an annual subscription. All prices are exclusive of local taxes and can be purchased via PayPal or Credit Card through Stripe. Orders can be canceled at any time, with licenses remaining active until the end of the paid billing period. Mistika Boutique Plans

More info is available at sgo.es/mistika-new-version.

The post ACES 2.0, Deinterlacing and Topaz: Mistika’s Triple Threat Update first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Just like DaVinci Resolve’s Speed Warp (DR for short) and Topaz’ Video AI (TVAI), Twixtor is now using neural networks aka machine learning to generate additional frames for slow motion (slo-mo) in post-production. We have already reviewed the early beta of its version 8 last year (the link includes examples of the results). But now the software is not only final, it is also available as a standalone version for Windows and MacOS. Any big changes?

Features of the standalone Version

The standalone version of Twixtor is easier to use for beginners than the plug-in, you don’t need any workarounds to extend the clips for slo-mo (see my other article). You can choose a faster or a more precise algorithm and the mode of control between a simple speed change or speed ramping. The latter offers quite intuitive controls you may wish to have in other software, but setting keyframes was not yet completely bug-free. Choices for the treatment of audio are self-explanatory, as is the speed slider. You can define the range of frames to be treated and choose the frame rate for the output independently of the input rate. Slightly confusing is the activation of the GPU (which is normally the right choice), since clicking on the field makes it dark. Now, is that on or off? BTW, the installer is looking very “Windows” on a Mac, but that works flawlessly.

For input, all flavours of AVC, HEVC and ProRes are accepted, but not DNxHR or Cineform, which are also high quality intermediate codecs. They are needed by users of DR under Windows, who can’t export ProRes. Neither is the MXF wrapper accepted, which is an important alternative to MOV. Unfortunately, you don’t even get an explanation when trying to use one of these, the picture just stays black. In the end, the plug-in might be the better choice for professional users, and for log, HDR, or RAW you should also resort to that. But then, RE:Vision FX gives you a license for the standalone together with the plug-in version.

The most serious limitation is in the output codecs you can choose from: there are only HEVC and H264, and both come in 8 bit with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling only. That happens without being mentioned anywhere, you’ll need a tool like MediaInfo (free) to find this out. Not a perfect choice if you want to treat the results further in any NLE with colour grading or filtering. At least you can up the bitrate for that purpose. The fact that they are wrapped as .m4v doesn’t make things better, some NLEs only accepted those after a re-wrap into .mov. And then, they contain no timecode, which can wreak havoc if you have to move files after editing or if you need to send them to collaborators. Definitely add TC while you are re-wrapping for such situations (with a tool like e.g. QTchange).

Setup for the Test

Our earlier tests suggested that higher image quality, more fps and shorter exposure times yield better results with any of these softwares. We didn’t want to make it too easy for the candidates, so this time we have used some smartphone footage. It was shot in HD only, at 30 fps and under available light. Of course, we have chosen a scene with intense activity, in this case dancers and drummers with criss-crossing movements. Get the source file here for your own tests. This is the stuff where trying to get good slo-mo in post usually fails. But, after all, you can shoot good slo-mo in most modern cameras if you have thought of it beforehand.

You can help Twixtor Pro as a plug-in to get pretty perfect results with masks and tracking points, but it’s not really easy to use in DaVinci Resolve or other hosts, as explained in my older article. The standalone version is rather simplified and straightforward, which can be very helpful for beginners. So, we also used standard presets for Speed Warp Better and the model offered in TVAI automatically for slo-mo without scaling, which is now Apollo. Fine tuning can result in even better results from both of these. TVAI is offering only 4x, 6x or 8x of slo-mo, so we decided to try 6x, since 8x seems a bit too adventurous for such footage. We ran the tests on a M1 Pro MacBook with 32 GB under Sonoma 14.7.2.

Test Results

Our test results at the highest quality setting were close, you need to do watch carefully to see the differences. All three are struggling with small objects like the drumsticks, which flicker on and off, and all three can show some pushing and pulling of the background or of criss-cross movement, in particular where there is motion blur. For this less than optimal source footage, the results of all three are still impressive. But personally, I’d say TVAI gets the crown here, in particular for the least background distortion. The faster mode in Twixtor reverts to optical flow, which would also be an option in DR. Both are considerably faster than the AI and can suffice for less critical footage. TVAI also offers a faster alternative for the Apollo model.

Of course, speed also matters, and TVAI’s Apollo model needed only 2:19 if nothing else was activated, the time is predicted quite well (the result is here). So, it needs only 3.5 times the playback time of the final sample to render. This applies once the model is downloaded for the first time, which can need quite a while depending on your internet connection and their servers. Its only shortcoming: you can’t do speed ramping, it works with fixed ratios. But it can generate its output in high quality codecs. Blackmagic’s Speed Warp Better is considerably slower at 7:11, a factor of 11, but the visual results are close (see here). Being part of DR, it handles speed ramps, albeit a bit clunky, and a broad choice of codecs. Twixtor was the slowest at 12:15, which is a factor of 18.8 (the result). All of them are predicting the time needed pretty well, and all three got the GPU cores of our humble laptop fully loaded when rendering, so you can expect considerably better speeds with higher numbers of cores on a Mac or with any strong GPU on a PC.

We tested some very high quality footage in UHD at 50 fps too, you can see a frame of those Bougainvilleas in strong wind in the header above. But the results of the best algorithm in either candidate were so close that only speed would matter. Considering quality and speed, TVAI’s Apollo model was the best, their optimisation for speed in particular is truly impressive, when compared to early versions. But it’s also quite costly at 300 US$ initially, being subscription based. The deal is fair: You are only excluded from further updates if you don’t pay any more, but it’ll still work. And then, it can also do excellent de-interlacing and upscaling (see my article here). Speed Warp is a Studio feature in DR, which costs just the same at 300 US$, but also includes dozens of other valuable features, and until today there was never a charge for updates. Like in our earlier test, Twixtor is still the slowest, even after being out of beta. But at the current price just short of 100 US$ for a permanent license, it is also the cheapest, while you pay as much for TVAI every year.

Recommendation

Twixtor standalone is easy to operate and the best bid for synthetic slo-mo if you don’t own DaVinci Resolve Studio anyway. But it has its shortcomings and is the slowest of the bunch. If you own DR Studio, its internal Speed Warp will suffice for the occasional slo-mo, even if it’s not that much faster. But TVAI is winning the crown here, and not only for quality and speed. If you are planning for slo-mo, you can shoot higher speed in most cameras at a lower resolution, and then let TVAI do the additional slo-mo plus upscaling. Even if this approach takes more time than slo-mo alone, it’ll still be faster than the others and can yield excellent results. But it comes at a hefty price tag.

The post Out on its own: Twixtor Standalone first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

Topaz Labs has unveiled Gigapixel AI v8, the latest upgrade to its popular AI-powered image upscaling software. Designed to enlarge and sharpen images for high-resolution needs, Gigapixel AI is particularly useful for professionals dealing with detailed graphics, film sequences, and complex visuals that demand crisp upscaling without pixelation.

With improved real-time image processing, Gigapixel AI v8 processes images up to twice as fast as previous versions, providing greater compatibility across different production workflows. Machine learning continues to be the backbone of Topaz’s software, and this new iteration reflects more refined algorithms that enhance image quality while reducing artifacts and preserving textures in high-resolution outputs.

Redefine Model: Enhanced Detail and Noise Reduction

Gigapixel AI v8 introduces a new Redefine model, aiming to improve both detail retention and noise reduction during upscaling—a critical factor for users in VFX and film production who require accurate reproductions of original image textures. This model focuses on enhancing clarity in highly detailed areas, such as fine textures on materials and backgrounds, while reducing noise in low-contrast zones, delivering a sharper and cleaner look that retains a natural aesthetic. For post-production artists, this means fewer follow-up edits to correct over-sharpened or “over-processed” elements, a frequent issue with upscaling AI.

The Redefine model also works in tandem with the software’s customizable scaling options, allowing users to fine-tune the amount of detail and noise reduction applied. This added layer of control is particularly useful when upscaling diverse assets, from cinematic close-ups to expansive environmental shots. According to Topaz Labs, users can expect more consistent results that are particularly well-suited to compositing workflows where visual coherence between multiple assets is paramount. This makes Gigapixel AI v8 an efficient tool for those looking to balance detail enhancement with image fidelity across a range of production needs.

New Features: Better Face Recovery, Cloud stuff

Gigapixel AI v8 brings notable updates to its Face Recovery model with the new Gen 2 version, now delivering improved upscaling for faces in profile and offering enhancements for challenging details like teeth and eyeglasses. This version also better handles less-defined facial attributes, helping restore obscure faces with minimal detail. Another major addition is the option to render images in the cloud, available with generative AI models, including the Redefine model and the Recover model (first introduced in Gigapixel 7.1 for upscaling extremely low-resolution images). Cloud processing operates on a credit-based system, with costs varying by image size and model used—larger outputs requiring more credits. This setup offers a flexible alternative for users looking to balance local and cloud-based workflows.

Perhaps the most practical addition is the customizable scaling options, enabling users to enlarge images with greater flexibility. Need to convert a single 4K frame to 8K? Gigapixel AI v8 has options for both presets and manual controls, allowing experienced users to fine-tune the results. The manual control, Topaz notes, can be set to adjust parameters like sharpness and noise, allowing for more tailored results when working with different types of assets, from film scenes to animated characters.

AI Quality Control: Results and Reliability

While AI-driven tools offer promising results, Topaz acknowledges that image processing still requires a critical eye. To keep quality at a premium, they recommend that users perform a few test runs on sample projects before committing to full production use. As with any technology, particularly in high-stakes production, it’s advisable to integrate this software carefully to ensure output aligns with professional standards.

Pricing and Compatibility

Gigapixel AI v8 is available for purchase at $99.99. It’s compatible with both Windows and macOS platforms, offering flexible integration into various pipelines for photo editors, VFX artists, and color graders alike. For more details, visit Topaz Labs’ official website.

Also: There is a cloud option, for large batches, but that costs “Topaz Credits” – so be aware of the costs!

The post Topaz Labs Launches Gigapixel AI v8 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.