Which Topaz Video AI model works best for upscaling AI-generated footage from Runway, Kling, or Veo?

For Runway, Kling, and Veo footage, pick by artifact: Astra (with Starlight 2.5 as the default sub-model) for modern AI video — it has per-scene detection tuned for synthetic textures; Proteus for manual control over over-sharp edges and plastic skin; Rhea for soft, restoration-style cleanup; Iris for face recovery. Run upscale BEFORE color grade.

Start with Astra and let it route to Starlight 2.5 — it's the model family Topaz built specifically for the artifact profile AI generators leave behind (over-sharpened edges, plastic skin, temporal inconsistency between clips), and its per-scene detection handles mixed-generator timelines without you re-picking a model every cut. If you want manual control, switch to Proteus and dial the four sliders that matter for AI footage: pull Sharpen down (Runway and Kling already over-sharpen), push Dehalo up (Veo edges ring), keep Denoise low (you'll kill micro-detail), and use Recover Detail conservatively. Reach for Rhea or Rhea XL when a Kling or Veo clip looks soft and synthetic rather than noisy — it's the best restoration pass for that exact look. Use Iris only on close-ups where faces lost structure in generation.

The reason this matters: AI-generated footage doesn't have film grain or sensor noise to recover — it has the opposite problem, synthetic over-sharpness and plastic surfaces, so the models built for restoring old footage (Artemis, Gaia) tend to amplify the wrong things on Runway/Kling/Veo output. Astra and Proteus are the two models tuned to subtract from that look instead of pushing it further.

Order matters in the post pipeline. Upscale first in Topaz, then add a touch of blur, grain, and color grade on top — invideo's creative director Hridaye describes the realism pass this way: "What we tend to do is put a tiny bit of blur on top of the scene, add a bunch of grain and then play with the grade till it comes closer to live action film." Doing the upscale after the grade bakes the synthetic sharpness into your final look.

A workflow note for invideo users: invideo is an agentic video creation tool that ships with every current generation model and upscalers including Topaz Astra. You can generate your shots through the invideo agent (Runway, Kling, Veo, Seedance 2.0 — agent routes by shot type), then run upscaling in the same project — either manually, or by spinning up a named sub-agent (call it "Upscale Artist") that batches the pass for you. That keeps generation and upscale in one context instead of exporting between platforms.

Practical notes: Topaz desktop is ~$299/year and wants a dedicated GPU — 4K AI upscaling is slow on integrated graphics. Astra is the cloud/credit-based path if you don't want to run it locally. For mixed timelines, let Astra's scene detection pick per shot; for hero shots, override into Proteus with manual sliders and a render comparison.

Watch some of these to see what works for you:

What we tend to do is put a tiny bit of blur on top of the scene, add a bunch of grain and then play with the grade till it comes closer to live action film.

— Hridaye, invideo's creative director