Category: Tech / Restoration

You download Topaz Video AI. You drag in your grainy 480p footage. You hit "Auto." You wait 4 hours. The result? Your subject looks like a wax figure melting in the sun. The skin has no texture, the eyes are weird swirls, and the background is shifting like a hallucination.

Topaz is incredible software, but the "Auto" button is often a trap. The secret to getting professional results is knowing exactly which AI Model to use for your specific footage.

Here is the breakdown of Proteus vs. Artemis vs. Iris and how to avoid that dreaded "AI Waxy Look."

The "Waxy" Problem (and How to Fix It)

The "plastic" look happens when the AI aggressively removes noise and interprets skin texture as "grain." It smoothes everything out until it looks fake.

The Fix: You must Add Grain. It sounds counterintuitive. Why add grain if we just removed noise? Because film grain adds "texture" back to the image. It tricks the eye into thinking the footage is sharper and masks the weird AI artifacts. In the Output Settings, always add 1-2% Grain.

The Models Explained

1. Artemis (The "Set It and Forget It" Model)

• Best For: Footage that is already decent but just needs to be cleaner or slightly sharper.
• The Vibe: It’s a "Denoise/Sharpen" combo.
• The Trap: If your footage is very low quality, Artemis tends to over-sharpen edges, creating "halos" (white lines around objects).
• Use When: You have 1080p footage you want to make look like crisp 4K.

2. Proteus (The "Control Freak" Model)

• Best For: Professional editors who want to fix specific problems.
• The Vibe: Manual Control.
• Why use it: This is the only model that lets you manually adjust the sliders.
• Revert Compression: Cranks up the quality on blocky YouTube rips.
• Recover Details: Adds texture back.
• De-Halo: Removes those ugly white sharpening lines.
• Pro Tip: Switch Proteus to "Manual," keep all sliders at 0, and gently increase only what you need. This avoids the plastic look.

3. Iris (The "Face Saver")

• Best For: Low-resolution footage with human faces (Old VHS, 2000s webcams).
• The Vibe: Facial Reconstruction.
• Why use it: Older models (and Artemis) are bad at eyes; they make people look like demons. Iris is specifically trained to reconstruct eyes and mouths realistically.
• Use When: Restoring old family videos or Zoom interviews.

4. Gaia (The "High Fidelity" Model)

• Best For: High-quality footage that just needs to be bigger.
• The Vibe: Slow and steady.
• Why use it: It doesn't add much "fake" detail; it just upscales cleanly. It is great for Computer Graphics (CG) or Animation.

Summary: Which One Do I Pick?

• Faces look weird? Use Iris.
• Footage is blocky/compressed? Use Proteus (Manual Mode) and crank "Revert Compression."
• Footage is clean but small? Use Artemis or Gaia.
• Still looks plastic? Turn down the "Recover Details" slider and Add Grain.