Upscaler & Enhancer
Learn how to enhance image quality, restore details, and avoid artifacts using the Upscaler in ZenCreator
After completing this lesson, you will learn how to:
- Enhance the quality of any type of image: SFW, NSFW, photos, UGC, portraits, scenes
- Understand when and which Upscale mode to choose
- Avoid plastic skin, over-sharpening, and unwanted hallucinations
- Restore textures, lighting, sharpness, and detail without altering the face
- Prepare images for publishing, printing, FaceSwap, Photoshoot, and video pipelines
What is the Upscaler in ZenCreator
The Upscaler is a tool designed to increase the level of detail in an image.
It does not simply stretch the picture.
It creates a brand-new, more detailed version of the image that stays as close as possible to the original.
You can use it to improve:
- images generated with Flux / SDXL / other 1K models
- photos with blurred or "plastic" skin
- poorly rendered hands and textures
- low-detail NSFW scenes
- old or low-resolution images
The Upscaler is the final polishing step, bringing your image to its maximum possible quality.
Why Upscaling Matters: What It Fixes
Most AI models produce images with low resolution and frequent defects.
Typical problems:
- low quality (1024px or less)
- plastic, artificial-looking skin
- unnatural highlights
- extra or incorrect details
- hair inconsistencies
- poorly rendered fabric textures
- unclear micro-details (nails, lashes, edges)
- facial artifacts, especially in NSFW content
The Upscaler helps eliminate or significantly reduce these issues.
How the Upscaler Works
The Upscaler generates a new version of the image:
- enhanced
- more detailed
- while preserving composition and content
Typically, it:
- maintains lighting
- removes blur
- adds textures
- reduces plastic skin
- fixes small details
The aspect ratio always stays the same, which is crucial for Instagram, Threads, UGC, and FaceSwap pipelines.
It works completely without censorship — suitable for both SFW and NSFW workflows.
Upscaler Modes — Full Breakdown
ZenCreator currently offers four modes:
- Basic — fast, affordable, improves detail, may alter the face
- Basic Safe Face — same as Basic, but the face is not touched at all
- Premium Realism — slower, more expensive, delivers the highest realism and the most detail, may alter the face
- Premium Safe Face — same realism and detail as Premium Realism, but the face stays untouched
The Future of Upscaling
We are testing a new Upscaler algorithm that enhances images very gently, without hallucinating new details, without altering the face, and while removing all major defects.
The first internal version already produces results that may replace all current modes.
Stay tuned — this new version will be introduced in upcoming releases.
Best Practices
- Always Upscale before using FaceSwap
- If the face must remain identical — use Safe Face modes
- For NSFW content → Premium Safe Face is almost always best
- For catalog-style photos → Premium Realism
- For human portraits → Safe Face
- For blurry outputs (Flux / SDXL) → Premium Realism
- If the result looks "over-stylized" → switch to Basic Safe Face