Nearest neighbor scaling (sampling) - simple and vital

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 24, 2023
72 replies
20483 views

After Effects allows you to use Bicubic, bilinear, and nearest neighbor ("draft") for scaling. (Also known as "sampling" or "interpolation.")

Premiere should absolutely have the option for the Motion effect to use Nearest Neighbor. (It would still be bicubic by default, as it is now.)

This is very important for sprite art, screenshots, screen recordings, etc.

Here is a forum thread on the issue from 2012, where most people unfortunately don't even understand what the problem is:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1061901

NOTE: The TRANSFORM effect currently has the option for bilinear and bicubic. It would be good to add nearest neighbor here, but that should not be the ONLY place where it is available. The Transform effect still has severe issues with buggyness, instability, and choppy movement. Again, it is important that the MOTION effect has the option for Nearest Neighbor.

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TaranVHAuthor

Inspiring

@11600604
https://twitter.com/TaranVH/status/1112874478952800256
GPUresize sucks for Premiere. If you just want 200% or 300% nearest neighbor upscale, you have to calculate the exact Width and Height dimensions manually. And if it goes beyond the frame edges, the X and Y position is offset.
Also, there's an arbitrary limit (8192) to how far I can upscale using nearest neighbor. So there are 3 things wrong with this implementation.
...
It's also very slow to render, which it shouldn't be, as nearest neighbor is the most basic, least processor-intensive scaling method, when done properly.
...
Currently (Aug 2019) linking to an AE composition that uses "draft" mode is still the best/easiest method for getting nearest neighbor into Premiere.

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FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

Any thoughts on RedGiant's Instant4K vs. PPro's basic upscale? I think the 4K is a pinch better because you can adjust a few settings, but, it's a plugin and not processed by the gpu, so it adds time to an export. It's always something with this software. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated. I'm wondering if PPro is better, but there doesn't seem to be any tests or data on the issue other than 'salesman' pitches online. I wish there was a 3rd party test on those 2.

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FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

"which generally yields better results"

better is relative to what you want to scale

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FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

Hi there,
Couldn't you use GPU Resize https://aescripts.com/gpuresize/ ?
Cheers
Antoine

TaranVHAuthor

Inspiring

@Francis Crossman
I've created a comparison of several up-scaling methods for you to look at. (all upscale comparisons.png)
As you can see, only Nearest Neighbor provides the desired result with sharp pixel edges - all other methods, including detail-preserving upscale, are blurry.
Here's a direct link to the sprite so that you can try it yourself:
https://i.imgur.com/Mdnm5lr.gif
Put this into a 1080p Premiere sequence and up-scale it to 3000%, and you will see the same blurry result.

(Note: If you open it in Photoshop and zoom in, it WILL retain its sharp pixel edges, because Photoshop's canvas (correctly) uses Nearest Neighbor for that.)

TaranVHAuthor

Inspiring

@Francis Crossman
Thank you for reading and responding to this feature request, but, with all due respect, you don't understand what we're asking for.
Detail-Preserving Upscale does NOT solve the problem of preserving sharp pixel edges. I've created another comparison to prove it to you.
This is an extreme example, but the differences between Nearest Neighbor and Lanczos are still noticeable even at 200% and 300%. I can upload more comparisons if you would like.
I've also uploaded the original sprite so that you can try it yourself. On a 1080p timeline, scale link_sprite.gif to 4000% and you will see the same result.

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FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

Yes

TaranVHAuthor

Inspiring

IMPORTANT:
Additionally, a hybrid of Nearest Neighbor and Bilinear would also be very useful.
I made a video just to explain how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKV1JFE0_Nk&feature=youtu.be
And here's a screenshot that makes it very clear:
https://i.imgur.com/Zu8aXBS.png