However, Red Giant has since moved on, and Instant 4K is no longer sold as a separate product. Fortunately, the upscaling landscape has changed dramatically: today we have that can deliver even better results with less manual tweaking. In the following sections, we will look at the best modern “instant 4K” plugins for After Effects, grouped by their approach.

Go to Composition > Composition Settings and set your resolution to 4K (typically 3840x2160 ).

Add the composition to the Render Queue. In the Output Module, choose QuickTime + ProRes (for further editing) or H.264/H.265 (for delivery). For 4K, set bitrate to 30–40 Mbps. If you have AfterCodecs, select it from the format menu to access faster codecs and GPU acceleration.

Before exploring third-party plugins, it's worth noting that After Effects includes a native upscaling tool that many users overlook. The effect can be found in the Effects & Presets panel under the Distort category.

But does this "instant" plugin actually exist? Or is it a unicorn in the world of post-production?