Topaz Enhance v2.2
User’s Manual
October 2006
Copyright © 2006 Topaz Labs LLC. All rights reserved.
www.topazlabs.com
CONTENTS
1 BEFORE YOU START
..........................................................................................................-
1 -
Inter-frame Filters
.................................................................................................................-
2 -
Parameter
Types..................................................................................................................-
3 -
Always Set Video Quality
to
High!........................................................................................-
4 -
Always De-Interlace
Video! ..................................................................................................-
4 -
Be Careful of Frame Rate
Change.......................................................................................-
5 -
Non-After Effects
Hosts........................................................................................................-
5 -
2 FILTER
DESCRIPTION.........................................................................................................-
6 -
Clean (RGB)*
.......................................................................................................................-
7 -
Clean (YC)*
........................................................................................................................-
10 -
Deinterlace*.......................................................................................................................-
13 -
Denoise & Enhance*
..........................................................................................................-
16 -
Double
Resolution*.............................................................................................................-
19 -
Enlarge*
.............................................................................................................................-
21 -
Remove Compression Artifacts..........................................................................................-
25 -
Sharpen Edges (RGB)
.......................................................................................................-
27 -
Sharpen, Fix Color Bleeding
..............................................................................................-
29 -
Sharpen, Line
Accent.........................................................................................................-
32 -
Wavelet Filter .....................................................................................................................-
34 -
3 MORE
INFORMATION........................................................................................................-
36 -
ii
Topaz Enhance V2.2 User’s Manual
Before You Start
1 BEFORE YOU START
Congratulations on your investment in Topaz Enhance!
This set of Adobe After Effects plug-ins
will improve your productivity and make it possible to
accomplish amazing video enhancement
tasks.
Here is some of what you can accomplish with Topaz
Enhance:
• De-interlace videos.
Topaz Enhance uses an advanced motion-compensated method that
results in high-resolution progressive videos with few
de-interlacing artifacts.
• Double the frame rate of
interlaced video. With higher frame rate video, your slow-mo
and time-warp effect will look much smoother.
• Increase video resolution, such as converting SD (480i/480p) video into HD
(720p/1080p) video. CIF (240p) to SD (480p). Topaz Enhance
uses a super-resolution
approach that explores information from many frames to
synthesize a high-resolution
video.
• Convert Formats, e.g.,
NTSC to PAL, PAL to NTSC, or NTSC to 24 FPS for a “film
look.”
• Reduce compression artifacts caused by codecs such as Motion JPEG, miniDV, MPEG
etc.
• Suppress noise with a
variety of advanced filters. You will even find that some
previously obscured details will become visible.
• Enhance edges and details of low quality videos. With Topaz Enhance filters, you do
this without the usual noise amplification and edge
ringing.
• Fix color bleeding such
as those caused by color sub-sampling of 4:2:0, or analogy
video. This unique capability can make other
post-production task such as matting a lot
easier.
• Enhance analog videos to
near-DV quality.
In addition, some filters in Topaz Enhance can produce
interesting video effects:
• Smooth-looking video which
make nice portray-like video.
• Line Accentuated scene.
• Flat-looking effect.
Chapter 2 will take each filter in Topaz Enhance and
describe its functionalities and parameters
independently. You can use it as a reference of each
filter.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Before You Start
Many tasks need to apply multiple filters in particular
ways and settings to achieve the desired
results. Our website
is the primary resource for you to getting up to speed:
• http://www.topazlabs.com/topazenhance.html has tutorials, tips, example projects and
other resources to assist you. If you have a problem,
somebody may have an answer
already. Please check the site often.
• Forum: http://www.topazlabs.com/tlbb/. Please post questions or contribute tips to Topaz
Enhance user community.
• You can always email us at topazenhance@topazlabs.com
The best way to learn how to harness the powerful set of
tools in Topaz Enhance is to try out
different filters and settings! Use this manual as an aide
to give you a basic understanding of the
plug-ins, but only through hands-on applications can you
fully take advantage of this knowledge.
The following sections describe a few essentials that
you must understand when using Topaz
Enhance. Please do
read them carefully. There are only a few simple things. But if you fail to
observe them, you find the some filter seem not work as it
intended.
Inter-frame Filters
There are two types of filters in Topaz Enhance:
Intra-frame
filters do
not have *
suffix
Inter-frame
filters have
* suffix
1. Intra-frame filters use only the current
video frame to compute the result. The name
of an intra-frame filters does not have “*” as
a suffix. For example, Sharpen Edges
(RGB) is an
intra-frame filter.
2. Inter-frame filters use the current video
frame and several frames before and after the
current frame to compute the output frame.
Inter-frame filters are indicated by the suffix
“*” in their name,
e.g., Deinterlace*,
Double Resolution*.
Inter-frame filters must always be the first filter in an
After Effects composition! (Other hosts, such as,
Digital Fusion may not have this requirement). If you
need to apply more than one inter-frame filters, you
must create another composition, or use pre-compose.
For example, you have DV footage and you want first to
remove codec blockiness, then deinterlace
it, and finally enlarge it to HD video, you cannot just
directly use three filters in the
same composition. Deinterlace* and Double
Resolution* will not work properly since they are
not the first filters applied to the footage in
composition.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Before You Start
What you need to do is to create three
compositions, say, comp1, comp2, and comp3.
Now you put the video footage in comp1 and
apply Remove Compression Artifacts filter.
Then you put comp1 as footage in comp2 and
apply Deinterlace* in comp2. Now filter
Deinterlace* is the
first filter in comp2 so it will
work properly. Finally you can put comp2 as
footage into comp3 and apply filter Double
Resolution* in comp3.
This in turn will work
since the filter is the first filter in comp3! Finally
if you want to sharpen the high-resolution video,
you can just apply Sharpen Edges in comp3,
after the Double Resolution* filter. You can do
so because Sharpen Edges (without * suffix) is
an intra-frame filter that will work anywhere.
You can also use pre-compose to do the same
thing.
If you are using Digital Fusion, you do not need to
worry about this since all filters will work
properly even if you apply them one after the other.
Parameter Types
Filters in Topaz Enhance have three types
of parameters:
• Required parameters,
which
must be set correctly or the filter
will not work properly at all.
• Main parameters, which
have
major effects on the outcome.
• Advanced parameters
are for
experience users to fine-tune the
performance of the filter.
Beginning users can leave them
with default values.
Required parameters
are indicated by prefix “!!!” in front of the parameter. They are
usually
information of the video to which the filter is applying,
e.g., whether is the footage is interlaced
frame, or what field order is it. Please make sure to set
them properly when you see the “!!!”
prefix. For other
parameters, default values give reasonable outcomes, but for parameters with
“!!!”, the default values is irrelevant and may not work at
all!
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Before You Start
Most filters in Topaz Enhance have many parameters; however
you can safely ignore those in
the Advanced group and use their default values at
the beginning.
Always Set Video Quality
to High!
Topaz Enhance requires complete video frame data in order
to achieve best results. Therefore,
you need to set Video Quality to High on your clips. If
this is not done, some filters will not
appear to change anything.
To set video quality to high
1. In Timeline window,
look
for the little diagonal line to
the right of your video name.
It is circled in red in the
screen shot.
2. Make sure the
diagonal line
is solid and not dotted. If it isn’t, click on it once and
it should change.
Always De-Interlace
Video!
Many video footages, such as those from NTSC/PAL DV camera,
are interlaced. After Effects
can directly import interlaced footage and use them in
composition. However, there are many
issues related to interlaced video. The biggest problem is
that output video tends to have only
half of the vertical resolution after processing.
We strongly recommend that you always de-interlace the
video as the first step using the
Deinterlace* filter in
Topaz Enhance. All the subsequent processing should be done on the
deinterlaced,
or progressive, video.
• Most filters in Topaz Enhance achieve better results
on progressive video, and many
can only work on progressive video. Therefore, you need
to de-interlace the video if
you want to use other filters such as Double Resolution*,
Denoise & Enhance*,
Sharpen, Fix Color Bleeding, etc.
• Topaz Enhance de-interlaced
video will give you much better quality for other postproduction
work. With the higher-quality progressive video, you are
free to zoom,
pan, crop video, and apply all sorts of filters and still
result in high quality output.
• You can achieve a better motion effect since you can double
the frame rate of the
de-interlaced video, e.g. 60 frames per second for NTSC
video. With this high frame
rate, you can do better slow-mo, time wrapping and other
effects.
The downside of de-interlacing video first is the extra
time and storage required to process
footages.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Before You Start
From Topaz Enhance V2.2, a combo filter, “Enlarge*”
was introduced. This filter combines
multiple functions of multiple filters, such as
de-interlacing, resolution enhancement, noise
reduction, edge enhancement into one filter. Therefore,
there is no need to de-interlace the
footage first if a combo filter can produce the result you
want.
Be Careful of Frame Rate
Change
Be cautious of changing frame rates when using Topaz
Enhance. During video enhancement,
we recommend that your composition/output video always have
the same frame rate, or exactly
double the frame rate of the input video for interlaced
videos. You can change the rate in later
stages of post-production, but try not to in the
enhancement stage.
The reason is that inter-frame filters analyze motion in
multiple frames of the video to achieve a
result that is not possible to achieve by using only one
frame. However, they generally require
smooth motion among frames. When you change frame rate,
e.g.,from NTSC 30fps to PAL
25fps, the original smooth motion will not be present in
the resulting video.
Non-After Effects Hosts
Topaz Enhance can work with software that supports After
Effects plug-ins. It has been tested to
work with:
• Adobe’s Premiere Pro (Pro only)
• Eyeon’s Digital Fusion
Since non-After Effects hosts do not support all Afters
Effects plug-ins functions, using Topaz
Enhance with these hosts may have some restriction or extra
parameters. In the filter
description, a section will explain any extra restriction
or parameters.
You should always set the frame rate of composition the
same as the footage in it if any of the
inter-frame filters are used. This is because in After Effects, the filter can obtains footage
frame
rate while in other hosts it cannot. Then it just assumes
the frame rate of footage and
composition are the same.
Again, please check out website www.topazlabs.com for more
information on how to use Topaz
Enhance effectively on
Premiere Pro and Digital Fusion.
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Topaz Enhance V2.2 User’s Manual
Filter Description
2
FILTER DESCRIPTION
This Chapter provides detailed description for each filter
in Topaz Enhance.
Topaz Enhance uses the
following conventions:
• Suffix “*”: A filter
whose name has suffix *, e.g., “Clean (RGB)*” and “Deinterlace*”,
uses multiple frames around current frame. This type of
filter must be the first filter applied to
footage. If you need
to apply a filter in front of it, you must use multiple compositions, or
pre-compose.
• Prefix “!!!”: If a
filter parameter has “!!!” as prefix, this is a required parameter.
Be sure to
set it correctly.
• Non-After Effects Host: a
few filters will have additional parameters appears on host other
than After Effects. We will have a separate table to
describe these parameters.
Main parameters and Advanced
parameters will be listed in separate tables. The default
values for the advanced parameters generally provide
reasonable result. Therefore, new users of
Topaz Enhance may use
the default values at the beginning.
You generally need to adjust Required parameters and
Main parameters.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Clean (RGB)*
Clean (RGB)* uses a
unique algorithm to preserve features and filtering noise. It combines
noise reduction with edge optimization. It also use
neighboring frames for more effective
discernment of noise and edges. This ensures that relevant
details are left as intact as possible
while the noise is suppressed.
Clean (RGB)* operates
on image in the RGB channels of your video. Compared with Clean
(YC)*, this filter is
more suitable for video with no color sub-sampling such as 4:4:4 video.
You should observe the following in order to use this
filter to its best result:
• The filter performs best for progressive videos. If you
have interlaced video footage such
as from NTSC or PAL DV video, we highly recommend that
you de-interlace it first
using Topaz Enhance’s Deinterlace*.
• The filter still works fine for interlaced video. If you do
not want to de-interlace the
video, it is best to still turn Interpret Fields off to
process video in frame mode. Then use
the result as interlaced video.
This filter has only one main parameter that needs to be
set properly.
Table 2-1
Clean (RGB) - *Main
Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Threshold Sets the threshold on
what is considered as noise. This value affects all R,
G, and B channel noise
threshold. The R channel use this value directly
while G and B can be
adjusted relative this value in Advanced setting.
A higher setting will
ensure that larger bits of noise get cleaned up, but can
also cause Topaz Cleaner
to mistake detail for noise.
Tips: When the threshold is
too small for the current noise level, the filter
has little effect. Try
to increase the threshold until the noise is obviously
reduced. Then reduce the
threshold level so that more details are
preserved.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Advanced settings are for experienced users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter:
Table 2-2
Clean (RGB)* - Advanced
Parameters
Advanced Params
Description
Radius Sets the “size” of the
neighboring pixels participated in the cleaning
operation. A greater value
will make use of more near-by pixels and make
the frame cleaner.
All RGB channels use
this value.
Tips: a smaller value results
in faster processing but less cleaning.
User frames Selects number of frames
around the current frame used in the
processing. Choose a
number greater than 1 if you video noise is high.
This allows the filter
to tell better which details are supposed to be there.
Tips: When setting this
feature at more than 1 frame, the filter must be at
the top of the effects
list. If it is not, you must generate a pre-composition.
Iterations Sets the number of
passes that cleaning operation runs. Use the default
value 1 in most
situations.
Tips: To clean up an extremely
unclean frame, processing it through more
than one pass may
achieve better results. You can use it to create flatlooking
video effect by setting
this value high.
De-speckles Choose this option if
you have excess random speckles in the form of
black or white dots.
G ch. Threshold Adj. Sets the value of G
(green) channel threshold relative to the main
Threshold.
For example, if Threshold=3.0
and this value is set to 1.5, the threshold
for G (green) channel
will be 3.0x1.5=4.5.
B ch. Threshold Adj. Sets the value of B
(blue) channel threshold relative to the main
Threshold.
For example, if Threshold=3.0
and this value is set to 1.5, the threshold
for B (blue) channel
will be 3.0x1.5=4.5.
Tips: Some cameras produce
more noise in B channel than other
channels in low lighting
situation. You can exam the noise in different
channel by only display
that channel and than set up the B/G ch.
Threshold Adj
accordingly.
Non-After Effects Hosts: please pay attention to the additional restriction:
• The frame rate of composition and footage must be exactly
the same. This is very
important. The filter can directly get frame rate
information in After Effects, but it
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
cannot do so in other hosts. Therefore it will just assume
the frame rate is the same in
a non-After Effects hosts.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Clean (YC)*
Like Clean (RGB)*, Clean (YC)* combines
effective noise reduction with edge optimization. It
also uses neighboring frames for more effective discernment
of noise and edges. Clean (YC)
will allow you to clean up both the luminance (Y) and color
(Cb, Cr) of your frame.
In addition, Clean (YC)* reduces color bleeding and
recovers color edges as well. Therefore, it
should be used to clean videos coded with YCbCr, YUV, or
YIQ color space, with color subsampling,
such as 4:1:1, or 4:2:0. MiniDV, Motion JPEG, MPEG-I/II and
many other videos
belong to this type.
You should observe the following in order to use this
filter to its best result:
• The filter performs best for progressive videos. If you
have interlaced video footage such
as from NTSC or PAL DV videos, we highly recommend you
de-interlace it first using
Deinterlace* filter in
Topaz Enhance.
• The filter still works fine for interlaced video. If you do
not want to de-interlace the
video, it is best to turn off interpret fields to
process video in frame mode. Then use the
result as interlaced video.
This filter has only one main parameter that needs to be
set properly.
Table 2-3
Clean (YC)* - Main
Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Threshold Sets the threshold on
what is to be considered noise. This value affects
both Y channel and Cb,
Cr noise threshold. The Y channel use this value
directly while Cb and Cr
can be adjusted relative this value in Advanced
setting.
A higher setting will
ensure that larger bits of noise get cleaned up, but can
also cause mistakes for
reducing details.
Tips: When the threshold is
too small for the current video noise condition,
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
the filter does not seem
to do anything. Try to increase the threshold until
noise is obviously
suppressed. Then reduce the threshold level so that
more details are
preserved.
These advanced settings are for experienced users to
fine-tune the effects of the filter.
Table 2-4
Clean (YC)* - Advanced
Parameters
Advanced Params
Description
Radius Adjust the size of the
neighboring area in which pixels are used in cleaning
operation. A greater
value will use of more near-by pixels and tends to
result more noise
suppression.
Y channel uses this
value directly. Color, Cb and Cr, channels use this
value as a base and
adjust it according to the C Radius Adj.
User frames Select number of frames
to use when processing. Choose a number
greater than 1 if you
video noise is high. This allows the filter to tell better
which details are
supposed to be there.
When setting this
feature at more than 1 frame, however, Clean (YC)*
must be at the top of
the effects list. If it is not, you must generate a precomposition.
Iterations Set the number of passes
the operation will run.
Tips: To clean up an extremely
noisy frame, processing it through more
than one pass may
achieve better results. You can also create flat-looking
video effect with this
value and threshold high.
De-speckles If, in a frame, you have
a lot of excess speckle noise in the form of white
or black dots, choose
this option. It may sometimes, however, mistake
detail bits as noise
speckles
C Threshold Adj. Set the noise threshold
of Cb and Cr channel relative to Threshold.
For example, if this
value is set to 1.5, then the threshold for Cb and Cr
channels is 1.5 times
greater than the threshold of Y.
Tips: Increasing this value
can reduce color noise and color bleeding.
C Radius Adj. Set the radius for Cb
and Cr channel relative to the radius of Y.
For example, if this
value is set to 1.5, then the radius used to process Cb
and Cr channel will be
1.5 times of Y.
Tips: Increasing this value
can reduce color noise and color bleeding.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Display Select output image
pre-view:
• Final RGB allows you to view your enhanced frame in normal
RGB. What you see here
is what you get in final rendering. You
must use this mode when
rendering for final output.
• Processed YC lets you display YCbCr in place of RGB to observe
the processed result.
The video will look totally completely from
normal view. You can use
it to exam Y, Cb, or Cr channel (select
R for Y, G for Cb, or B
for Cr channel to display) and determine
the result of color
channel noise suppression, especially how well
color bleeding is
corrected.
• Original YC displays the unprocessed frame in YCbCr format.
You can use it to
compare the processed YCbCr with the
unprocessed YCbCr
channels.
Non-After Effects Hosts
Please note this additional restriction:
• The frame rate of composition and footage must be exactly
the same. This is very
important to achieve good result. (The filter can directly
get frame rate information in
After Effects, but it cannot do so in other hosts.)
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Deinterlace*
Deinterlace* in Topaz
Enhance employs an advanced method that uses nine fields to
synthesize high resolution frames. In addition, it can
double frame rate, e.g. convert a 30 FPS
(Frames Per Second) NTSC to a 60 FPS video.
Please be aware of the followings to achieve best result:
• The “Separate Fields” must set to “Off” in “Interpret
Footage”. You do not have to
do this manually. The filter will change the setting for
you the first time you apply the
filter to footage. Just make sure that you do not change it
back manually.
• Do not use Deinterlace* to de-interlace film-mode
video materials, or certain types of
footage. The filter assumes that the objects the video move
fairly smoothly. Therefore, a
choppy motion video will cause problems for its optical
flow motion tracking, leading to
poor de-interlacing.
• Deinterlace* works
fine at any frame rate for a composition. However, we strongly
recommend that you set the frame rate of a composition to
the same or double the rate of
the footage frame rate. This will not only prevent jerky
motion but also enable other
filters, such as Denoise & Enhance* or Double
Resolution*, to achieve best results.
Change the frame rate as the last step of the enhancement
process.
This filter has two main parameters that need to be set
properly.
Table 2-5
Main Parameters of
Deinterlace*
Main Parameters
Description
!!! Field Order This must be set
properly according to the footage field order. An
improper value will lead
to poor de-interlacing and jerky motion.
Tips: NTSC video is usually Lower
Fields First, PAL is usually not.
However, there are
exceptions. If you find that the de-interlaced video has
jagged edges or jerky
motion, this value may be incorrect.
Threshold It specifies the
threshold for change detection.
A high value enables the
filters to tolerant more variation among
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
neighboring fields that
are used to synthesize the high resolution.
However high value may
also lead to wrong detection of the sense change
and leads to jagged
edges.
A low value reduce the
tolerant of variation, which may result to little interfields
inform being used. Too
small value tends to result intra-fields
interpolation which will
give lower resolution result.
Tips: Use high value, 6~12,
when video are noisy. Use lower value, 4~8,
for clean video.
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the result.
Table 2-6
Advanced Parameters of
Deinterlace*
Advanced Params
Description
Motion Candidates Specifies number of
candidate motion vectors, for each pixel, being
considered in
synthesizing the frame.
Tips: 2~3 is usually good for
most of the situation. Larger number
increase processing
time.
Spatial-Temporal
Balance
Sets the balance between
spatial processing and temporal processing.
Deinterlace* tracks and
compensates for object motion in the video to
obtains its result. When
it senses scene changes or fails to reliably track
the motion, it falls
back to field interpolation. This value determines the
balance between spatial
and temporal processing.
Tips: 0.5~0.8 usually works
for most situation. If no jagged edges result,
higher value tends to
give better result.
Non-After Effects Hosts
For hosts other than After Effects, an extra parameter must
be set correctly.
Table 2-7
Deinterlace* -
Additional Parameters for non-AE hosts
Parameter Description
!!! Footage frame rate You must enter the exact
frame rate of the footage.
For example, if the
footage is a NTSC DV with 29.97 FPS, you must enter
29.97 (not 30 or 29.95)
in order for Deinterlace* to achieve optimal
results.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
In addition,
• The filter cannot turn off
the interpret footage in a composition in a non-After Effects
host. You have to manually set “Interpret Footage” off!
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Denoise & Enhance*
The Denoise & Enhance* filter uses up to seven
frames around the current frames to filter noise
and enhance clarity and details. Moving scenes in video are
motion-compensated on a pixel-bypixel
basis to achieve the best result. Upon detecting scene
change or large motion, the filter will
use intra-frame filtering instead.
Denoise & Enhance* filter
is very effective to suppress small to medium amount of noise and
reveal the hidden details at the same time. For severe
noise, you may need to use it together with
Wavelet* in Topaz
Enhance. As an alternative, you may also try Clean (RGB)* or Clean
(YC)*.
Here are some hints on when to use this filter
• Work with progressive videos for the best result. Use Deinterlace*
to de-interlace video
first for interlaced video.
• Denoise & Enhance* filter
enhances the clarity of video and creates natural looking
result. It is the preferred the filter for noise reduction
and clarity enhancement. Clean
(RGB/YC)* can create
sharp edges and reduce color bleeding while reduce video noise.
Sometimes it may create jagged edges and suppress some
details as well. Try them out
for your particular situation and select the result you
want.
• Denoise & Enhance* filter
assume the video motion is smooth across each frame while
Clean (RGB/YC)* do
not. Therefore, Denoise & Enhance* will not work well for
carton or some slow-mo type of video, where the objects in
video move every few
frames. Use Clean (RGB/YC)* instead.
This filter has only two main parameters that need to be
set properly.
Table 2-8
Denoise & Enhance* -
Main Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Threshold Specifies the threshold
for noise suppression.
A high value enables the
filters to tolerant more variation among
neighboring frames and
filter out more noise.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Tips: Use a high value, 6~12,
when the video is noisy. Use a lower value,
4~8, for clean video.
Sharpness This value specifies the
strength of details and sharpness enhancement.
Tips: increase this value to
bring out more details. However, do not overuse
it and cause
overshooting or ringing edges. Use the Sharpen Edge
filter if you want
further increase sharpness.
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the effect of the filter.
Table 2-9
Denoise & Enhance* -
Advanced Parameters
Advanced Params
Description
Filter Strength Sets the value of
maximum noise filtering strength. Higher values results
in better noise
suppression.
Tips: use 3~4 for strong
noise, 2~3 for light noise, and 2 for detail
enhancement.
Spatial-Temporal
Balance
Set the balance between
spatial (intra-frame) processing and temporal
(inter-frame) filtering.
Denoise & Enhance* tracks and compensates
for object motion in the
video to suppress noise
and enhance details. When it senses scene
changes or fails to
track large motion, it falls back to intra-frame filtering.
This value determines
the balance between spatial and temporal filtering.
Tips: 0.5~0.8 usually works
for most situation. If no jagged or blurred
edge result, try to use
a higher value so that more inter-frame processing
is used.
Original Pixel Weight Set the minimum weight
for the unfiltered pixel value to be added in the
processing.
Tips: normally the minimum
value works best. Use a high value if you
want some of the noise
and details to seep into the result to make it look
more natural.
C Channel Weight During motion tracking,
color channels, Cb and Cr, are used in the
calculation. This value
specifies the weight of the color channel against
luminance channel Y.
Tips: set this value to 0 to
disable C channel calculation and increase
processing speed.
However, you should watch for situation where color
changes but luminance
does not, which will lead to color bleeding artifacts.
Non-After Effects Hosts
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Please pay attention to the additional restriction on hosts
other than After Effects:
• The frame rates of composition and footage must be exactly
the same. This is very
important to achieve good result. (The filter can directly
get frame rate information in
After Effects, but it cannot do so in other hosts.)
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Double Resolution*
This filter is depreciated from V2.2 after introducing Enlarge*.
It remain in V2.2 for
compatibility reason. To increase resolution, use Enlarge*
filter instead.
The Double Resolution* filter doubles video
resolution and produces a video exactly twice
number of pixels both horizontally and vertically. It uses
a super-resolution based method that
use multiple frames to synthesize a high-resolution video.
You need to set the width and height of the composition
approximately twice the size of the
footage to accommodate the enlarged video.
Using Double Resolution* is straightforward.
However, you need to observe the followings to
achieve best result:
• Work with progressive video for the best result. Use Deinterlace*
to de-interlace video
first for interlaced video.
• Double Resolution* assumes
the video motion is smooth across each frame. Therefore,
the filter will not work well for carton or slow-mo type of
video, where the objects in
video move every a few frames.
This filter has only two main parameters that need to be
set properly.
Table 2-10
Main Parameters of Double
Resolution*
Main Parameters
Description
Threshold Specifies the threshold
for change detection.
A high value enables the
filters to tolerant more variation among
neighboring frames that
are used to synthesize the high-resolution frame.
However, high value may
also lead to wrong detection of scene change
and leads to jagged
edges.
A low value reduce the
tolerant of variation, which may result in little interframe
inform being used. Too
small value tends to result intra-frame
interpolation, which
will give lower resolution result.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Tips: Use high value, 8~15,
when video are noisy. Use lower value,
6~10, for clean video.
Sharpness This value specifies the
strength of details and sharpness enhancement.
Tips: increase this value to
bring out more details. However, do not over
use it to cause
overshooting or ringing edges. Use Sharpen Edge filter if
you want further
increase sharpness.
These advanced settings are for experience users to
fine-tune the effects of the filter.
Table 2-11
Advanced Parameters of
Double Resolution*
Advanced Params
Description
Motion Candidates Specify number of
candidate motion vectors, for each pixel, to be
considered in
synthesizing high-resolution frame.
Tips: 2~3 is usually good for
most situations. Larger number increase
processing time.
Spatial-Temporal
Balance
Set the balance between
spatial (intra-frame) interpolation and temporal
(intra-frame) processing.
Double Resolution* tracks object motion in
the video and compensates
the motion to obtains
its result. When it detects sense change or fails to
reliably track large
motion, it fails back to frame interpolation. This value
determines the balance
between spatial and temporal processing.
Tips: 0.5~0.8 usually works
for most situation. If no jagged edge result,
try to use higher value
so that more processing is used.
Non-After Effects Hosts
Please pay attention to the restriction on host other than
After Effects:
• The frame rates of composition and footage must be exactly
the same. This is very
important to achieve good result. (The filter can directly
get frame rate information in
After Effects, but it cannot do so in other hosts.)
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Enlarge*
The Enlarge* filter is a combo filter that achieve
the following functions in one easy to use
filter:
1. De-interlace video if the footage is interlaced.
2. Increase video resolution, i.e. scale up video, up to 4
times of the original using superresolution
method.
3. Reduce both luminance and color noise.
4. Sharpen edges.
If you want to enlarge, or scale up, a video clip, try this
filter first before using multiple of other
filters. This filter is much easier to use and render much
faster. In most cases it produce
excellent results. However, it does not have all the
capability of other dedicated filters. If you
find it cannot achieve what you are looking for, you should
still try to use multiple filters.
Using Enlarge* is straightforward. However, you need
to observe the followings to achieve best
result:
• Enlarge* assumes the
video motion is smooth across each frame. Therefore, the filter
will not work well for carton or slow-mo type of video,
where the objects in video move
every a few frames. You should also use After Effect 3-2
pulldown reversal for 3-2
pulldown film NTSC clips.
This filter has four main parameters that need to be set
properly.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Table 2-12
Main Parameters of
Enlarge*
Main Parameters
Description
!!! Video Type This must be set
properly according to the footage type. If your footage to
be enlarged is
progressive, you must set it to “Progressive”. If the footage
is an interlaced video,
you must set it as either “lower field first” or “higher
field first” correctly.
Tips: NTSC video is usually Lower
Fields First, PAL is usually not.
However, there are
exceptions. If you find that the result has jagged
edges or jerky motion,
this value may be incorrect.
Zoom in The up-scaling factor,
ranging from 1.2X to 4X of the original video size
Threshold Specifies the threshold
for both change detection and noise reduction.
A high value enables the
filters to tolerant more variation among
neighboring frames that
are used to synthesize the high-resolution frame
and reduce more noise.
However, improper high value may also lead to
wrong detection of scene
change and suppress details.
A low value reduce the
tolerant of variation, which may result in little interframe
inform being used. Too
small value tends to result intra-frame
interpolation, which
will give lower resolution result. Too small value also
reduce less noise
Tips: Use high value, 8~15,
when video are noisy. Use lower value,
6~10, for clean video.
Sharpness This value specifies the
strength of details and sharpness enhancement.
Tips: increase this value to
bring out more details.
These advanced settings are for experience users to
fine-tune the effects of the filter.
Table 2-13
Advanced Parameters of
Enlarge*
Advanced Params
Description
Luma Noise
Reduction
0~1.0. Value 0 disable
noise reduction, which should be used for high
quality video footage.
1.0 turns full noise reduction to 100%
Tips: 2
Temporal Processing Set the balance between
spatial (intra-frame) interpolation and temporal
(intra-frame)
processing.
Enlarge* tracks object motion in
the video and compensates the motion to
obtains its result. When
it detects sense change or fails to reliably track
large motion, it fails
back to frame interpolation. This value determines the
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
balance between spatial
and temporal processing.
Tips: 0.5~0.8 usually works
for most situation. If no jagged edge result,
try to use higher value
so that more processing is used.
Color Noise Filtering 0,1,2, or 3. You can use
this setting to filter out color noise. Default value
is 1 for small color filtering
Height Adjustment If you can to scale the
video not proportionally, change this setting. A
value greater than 1.0
will make the output video taller.
Add Grain This parameter control
adding small amount of grains to the result video.
This sometimes leads to
more natural looking video. 0 will disable adding
grains.
If the video is interlaced, the following parameters can be
used to adjust de-interlacing
Table 2-14
Advanced Parameters of
Enlarge*
Advanced Params
Description
Threshold It specifies the threshold
for change detection for de-interlacing.
A high value enables the
filters to tolerant more variation among
neighboring fields that
are used to synthesize the high resolution.
However high value may
also lead to wrong detection of the sense change
and leads to jagged
edges.
A low value reduce the
tolerant of variation, which may result to little interfields
inform being used. Too
small value tends to result intra-fields
interpolation which will
give lower resolution result.
Tips: Use high value, 6~12,
when video are noisy. Use lower value, 4~8,
for clean video.
Temporal Processing Set the balance between
spatial (intra-frame) interpolation and temporal
(intra-frame)
processing.
Double Resolution* tracks object motion in
the video and compensates
the motion to obtains
its result. When it detects sense change or fails to
reliably track large
motion, it fails back to frame interpolation. This value
determines the balance
between spatial and temporal processing.
Tips: 0.5~0.8 usually works
for most situation. If no jagged edge result,
try to use higher value
so that more processing is used.
Non-After Effects Hosts
For hosts other than After Effects, an extra parameter must
be set correctly.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Table 2-15
Deinterlace* -
Additional Parameters for non-AE hosts
Parameter Description
!!! Footage frame rate You must enter the exact
frame rate of the footage.
For example, if the
footage is a NTSC DV with 29.97 FPS, you must enter
29.97 (not 30 or 29.95)
in order for Enlarge* to achieve optimal results.
In addition,
• The filter cannot turn off
the interpret footage in a composition in a non-After Effects
host. You have to manually set “Interpret Footage” off!
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Remove Compression
Artifacts
Remove Compression Artifacts is designed for removing fringes, blocks and other
artifacts
caused by video compression. These artifacts appear as
vertical and horizontal lines in the video
as well as fringes next to sharp edges.
Please be aware of the following to achieve the best
result:
• The filter works for both interlaced and progressive video.
However, it is best to use
frame mode for interlaced video, i.e., the “Separate
Fields” must set to “Off” in
“Interpret Footage”.
And then you must check the “!!! Frame Type” parameter.
• It is best to apply it before any other processing.
This filter has two main parameters.
Table 2-16
Remove Compression
Artifacts - Main Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
!!! Frame Type Check the box if your
video is interlaced but “Separate Field” is set to “Off”
for its field
interpretation. If your video is progressive, leave the box
unchecked.
You must make sure it is
set properly related to the separate fields setting
of the footage.
Suppression Sets the strength of
artifact suppression.
Tips: an excessive setting may
cause the filter to mistake video details for
noise and cause more
blur.
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter.
Table 2-17
Advanced Parameters of
Denoise & Enhance*
Advanced Params
Description
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
CbCr subsampling This refers to the color
sub-sampling of Y:Cb:Cr in the original video
compression. Choose the choice
that is nearest to your original: for
example, if you had
4:1:0, choose 4:1:1.
For example, use 4:1:1
for DV and 4:2:2 for MPEG2 or certain MJPEG
video files.
Processing mode Checking the slow/best
quality box will give you the better artifacts
reduction but will also
make rendering each frame 2-3 times slower.
Non-After Effects Hosts
No additional restriction.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Sharpen Edges (RGB)
Sharpen Edges (RGB) produces sharper video by synthesize sharp
edges without producing
ringing or overshooting. It works directly on R, G, and B
channels. It is suitable for video
material with no color space sub-sampling, i.e., 4:4:4
video.
For a video with 4:2:2 or 4:1:1 or others, you may find
that Sharpen, Fix Color Bleeding could
produce better result.
In addition, the filter works best with progressive video.
Use Deinterlace* to de-interlace video
first for interlaced video.
The main parameters of this filter are explained in the
table below.
Table 2-18
Sharpen Edges (RGB) -
Main Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Radius Set the size and
thickness of the edges to be enhanced.
Tips: use small value, e.g.
0.8~1.5 for clear video, large value 1.5 and up
for blurry video.
Crispness Set the crispness of
edges. Higher value produces sharp and hard edges
without ringing and
overshooting. This value applies directly to R channel,
and can be adjust for G,
B channel in Advanced setting.
Tips: overly high value may
result unnatural looking video.
Sharpness Sharpen the video
similar to standard sharpening method. This value
applies directly to R
channel, and can be adjust for G, B channel in
Advanced settings.
Tips: It may create
overshooting when value is high. Should use it
together with Crispness
to achieve the best result.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter.
Table 2-19
Advanced Parameters of
Denoise & Enhance*
Advanced Params
Description
Details A higher setting will
allow more of the original frame detail to be shown.
However, it may also
allow some original noise through as well.
G ch. Crispness Adj. Set G (green) channel
crispness adjustment.
For example, if this value
is 1.5 and Crispness is 2.0, the crispness value
for G channel is 3.5
(=1.5*2.0).
G ch. Sharpness Adj. Set G (green) channel
sharpness adjustment.
For example, if this
value is 1.5 and Crispness is 2.0, the crispness value
for G channel is 3.5
(=1.5*2.0).
B ch. Crispness Adj. Set B (blue) channel
crispness adjustment.
For example, if this
value is 1.5 and Crispness is 2.0, the crispness value
for B channel is 3.5
(=1.5*2.0).
B ch. Sharpness Adj. Set B (blue) channel
sharpness adjustment.
For example, if this
value is 1.5 and Crispness is 2.0, the crispness value
for B channel is 3.5
(=1.5*2.0).
Non-After Effects Hosts
No additional restriction.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Sharpen, Fix Color
Bleeding
Sharpen, Fix Color Bleeding filter synthesizes edges and correct color bleeding. In the
luminance channel Y, it creates sharp and crispy edges
without overshooting and noise
amplification. In the chrominance channel, e.g. Cb,Cr, it
optimizes color edges and reduces color
bleeding.
This filter is suitable for process analog NTSC/PAL/SECAM
video since they have low color
bandwidth. It is also good for processing digital video
with 4:2:2 or 4:1:1 format, such as
miniDV, MJPEG, MPEG, etc.
For 4:4:4 video or scanned film footage, Sharpen Edges
(RGB) could be more suitable.
In addition, the filter works best with progressive video.
Use Deinterlace* to de-interlace video
first for interlaced video.
The table below lists the main parameters of this filter.
Table 2-20
Sharpen, Fix Color
Bleeding - Main Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Y Radius Set the size and
thickness of the edges to be enhanced for Y channel.
Tips: use small value, e.g.
0.8~1.5 for clear video, large value 1.5 and up
for blurry video.
Crispness Set the crispness of
edges for Y channel. Higher value produces sharp
and hard edges without
ringing and overshooting.
Tips: overly high value may
result unnatural looking video.
Sharpness Sharpen the Y channel
similar to the standard sharpening
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Tips: May create overshooting
when value is high. Should use it together
with Crispness to
achieve the best result.
Color Bleeding
Radius
This value should be set
approximately to the size of color bleeding in the
video.
Tips: zoom video to 200%~400%
to observe the color bleeding size and
processed result. Use Preview
Mode to observe Cb and Cr channel.
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter.
Table 2-21
Advanced Parameters of
Denoise & Enhance*
Advanced Params
Description
Details A higher setting will
allow more of the original frame detail to be shown.
However, it may also
allow some original noise through as well.
Color Bleeding
Threshold Any Cb or Cr edge below this value will be ignored. Useful
for
preventing smaller UV features from being suppressed.
Color Pre-filter
Radius The radius of a low-pass Gaussian filter applied to Cb and
Cr
channels before color edge enhancement. Useful if color
channels
have extensive noise and artifacts.
Color Shift X Shift colors a number of
pixels to the right. To shift to the left, input a
negative number.
Tips: Some analog video may
have color shift. Adjust this value to
compensate.
Color Shift Y Shift colors a number of pixels down. To shift up, input a
negative
number. These two parameters can be used to align color
channel
with Y channel.
Preview Mode Select output image
preview:
• Final RGB allows you to view your enhanced frame in RGB. What
you see here is what you
get in export. You must use this mode
when rendering for final
output.
• Processed YC lets you display YCbCr in place of RGB to observe
the processed result.
The video will look different from normal
view. You can use it to
exam Cb, or Cr channel (select G, or B
channel to display) and
determine the result of color channel noise
suppression, especially
how well color bleeding is corrected.
• Original YC displays the unprocessed frame in YCbCr format.
Allows you to compare
the processed YCbCr with the
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
unprocessed YCbCr
channels.
Non-After Effects Hosts
No additional restriction.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Sharpen, Line Accent
Sharpen, Line Accent is
a filter that sharpens video, reduces jagged edges, and enhances line
features. It can also suppress small amount of noise. It
can be used to:
• Sharpen video. Comparing to Sharp Edges (EGB) or Sharpen
Fix Color Bleeding,
this filter tends to create smoother looking edges and line
features.
• Enhance line features to create interesting effects. You
may need to apply it multiple
time to accentuate lines distinctively.
The main parameters are listed in the table below.
Table 2-22
Main Parameters of
“Sharpen, Line Accent”*
Main Parameters
Description
Radius Controls the size and
thickness of edges.
In general, use a
smaller value when you want to sharpen the picture and
use a greater value when
you want to reduce video noise. When this value
is low, e.g. 1-2,
sharpened edges are thin(1-2 pixels). However, only noise
grains of small size
will be reduced. When this value is high, larger
amounts of noise can be
reduced.
Line Accent A higher setting will
put an emphasis on line features in your video. Use
high value to reduce
jagged edges.
Tips: if you want to create
curly line effect and setting 1.0 is still not
enough, try to apply
this filter 2~4 times.
Sharpness Determines the degree of
sharpness. A value greater than 1.0 will sharpen
the video while a value
less than 1.0 will blur the video.
Tips: May create overshooting
when value is high.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Noise Threshold Set the threshold under
which object edges will be treated as noise.
A high threshold can result
in more noise suppression but may mistake
video detail for noise.
The advanced setting is for experience users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter.
Table 2-23
Advanced Parameters of
Denoise & Enhance*
Advanced Params
Description
Hor. Line Suppress A higher setting will
suppress strong horizontal edges in your frame. This
may be useful to reduce
flicker effects of horizontal lines.
Ver. Line Suppress A higher setting will
suppress strong vertical edges in your frame.
Color Radius Set the radius of the
highpass filter for U/V channel edge enhancement
and the lowpass filter
for U/V noise reduction.
Color Sharpness A higher setting will
make each color edge “harder,” thus sharpening them.
Color Threshold Defines a threshold
under which chrominance noise will be suppressed.
Preview Mode Select output image
preview:
Final RGB allows you to view your
enhanced frame in RGB. What you
see here is what you get
in export. You must use this mode when
rendering for final
output.
Processed YC lets you display YCbCr
in place of RGB to observe the
processed result. The
video will look different from normal view. You can
use it to exam Cb, or Cr
channel (select G, or B channel to display) and
determine the result of
color channel noise suppression, especially how
well color bleeding is
corrected.
Original YC displays the unprocessed
frame in YCbCr format. Allows you
to compare the processed
YCbCr with the unprocessed YCbCr channels.
Non-After Effects Hosts
No additional restriction.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
Wavelet Filter
Wavelet Filter uses a
3-scale wavelet filter for noise reduction, sharpness enhancement, and
edge correction. Basically, it filters edges at three
different sizes, and reduces noise and modifies
edges individually in these three different sizes.
Wavelet Filter is an
intra-frame filter that works on the current frame only. You can use it
together with Denoise & Enhance*, or Clean
(RGB/YC)* to clean up the most noisy video. In
this case, apply Wavelet Filter first to videos and
then Denoise & Enhance* or
Clean(RGB/YC)* (need
pre-compose).
The filter can also be used to achieve smooth looking video
effect by intentionally set the noise
threshold a high value.
The table below lists the main parameters of this filter.
Table 2-24
Wavelet - Main
Parameters
Main Parameters
Description
Noise Threshold Set the overall
threshold for noise suppression.
Tips: A high threshold can
result in more noise suppression but may also
smooth out video detail.
For this reason, it is sometimes set intentionally
to a high to achieve
smooth looking video.
Sharpness Set the overall
sharpness.
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Topaz Enhance V2.1 User’s Manual
Filter Description
The advanced setting is for experienced users to fine-tune
the effects of the filter.
Table 2-25
Advanced Parameters of
Denoise & Enhance*
Advanced Params
Description
Max Suppression Sets the maximum noise
suppression. For example, if the value is 0.9, it
is possible to suppress
up to 90% of noise if the Noise Threshold is set
properly.
Tips: use smaller value to let
some noise and details in the filtered image
can reduce artifacts.
Threshold Hardness This value specifies hardness of the transition around Noise
Threshold.
Tips: a higher value
tends to produce clean video but large noise
may manifest as artifacts.
Threshold Adj.
(R=4.5) Adjust the noise threshold for edge components of size
around 4.5
pixels.
Threshold Adj.
(R=2.2)
Adjust the noise
threshold for edge components of size around 2.2 pixels.
Threshold Adj.
(R=1.0)
Adjust the noise
threshold for edge components of size around 1.0 pixels.
Sharp Adj. (R=4.5) Adjust sharpness of edge components of size around 4.5
pixels.
Sharp Adj. (R=2.2) Adjust sharpness of edge
components of size around 2.2 pixels.
Sharp Adj. (R=1.0) Adjust sharpness of edge
components of size around 1.0 pixels.
Non-After Effects Hosts
No additional restriction.
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Topaz Enhance V2.2 User’s Manual
More Information
3
MORE INFORMATION
Our website is the primary resource:
• http://www.topazlabs.com/topazenhance.html has tutorials, tips, example projects and
other resources to assist you. If you have a problem,
somebody may have an answer
already. Please check the site often.
• Forum: http://www.topazlabs.com/tlbb/. Please post questions or contribute tips to Topaz
Enhance user community.
• You can always email us at topazenhance@topazlabs.com
We appreciate your comment and suggestions very much.
Please do not hesitate to email us.
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