Segmentation of motion picture images

Motion picture special effects often consist of a composite image which consists partly of an actor and partly of an artificial background. In order to produce these shots, the unwanted background behind the actor must be segmented away in order that none of it appears in the final composite shot. The standard approach requires this unwanted background to be a blue screen. Systems that are capable of segmenting actors from more natural backgrounds have been proposed, but many of these are not readily adaptable to the resolution involved in motion picture imaging. This paper presents an algorithm that requires minimal human interaction to segment motion picture resolution images. Results from the algorithm are quantitatively compared with alternative approaches.