upscale-and-interpolate

name	upscale-and-interpolate
description	Post-processing chain — upscale a clip's resolution and/or interpolate frames for smoother motion. Run after a clip is selected but before final assembly.

Upscale & Interpolate Pipeline

Post-processing for clips that need higher resolution or frame rate than the generation model produced.

When to use

• Generation model output is 720p/1080p but the brief calls for 4K.
• Clip is 24fps but the brief calls for 60fps slow-mo or smoother motion.
• A specific take is great but visibly soft/low-fps.

When NOT to use

• Clip is already at target spec — don't upscale unnecessarily, it adds cost and processing time without benefit.
• Source quality is poor — upscaling amplifies artefacts. Regenerate instead.

Inputs

• A clip in clips/selected/ (or clips/raw/ if user wants to upscale before selection).
• Target resolution and fps from brief/creative-brief.md.
• Upscale + interpolation models from brief/tools-and-models.md (e.g. Topaz, Real-ESRGAN, RIFE, FILM).

Steps

1. Confirm target. Read brief; state current vs target resolution and fps.
2. Upscale. Call configured upscaler. Save to generation/upscale/NN-shortname-vN-up.mp4. Log it.
3. Interpolate (if fps target > source fps). Call interpolation model on the upscaled output. Save to generation/upscale/NN-shortname-vN-up-interp.mp4. Log it.
4. QC. Show before/after comparison if possible. Watch for: temporal artefacts, ghosting on fast motion, oversharpening haloes.
5. Promote. Copy approved final to clips/edited/NN-shortname-final.mp4.

Common gotchas

• Order matters. Upscale first, interpolate second. Interpolating then upscaling wastes compute on synthetic frames.
• Interpolation breaks on cuts. If a clip contains an internal cut (rare for AI-gen but possible), interpolation will smear across it.
• File size explosion. A 4K/60fps clip is ~4× the size of 1080p/30fps. Plan storage accordingly.