Image-based motion blur for stop motion animation

ABSTRACT

Stop motion animation is a well-established technique where still pictures of static scenes are taken and then played at film speeds to show motion. A major limitation of this method appears when fast motions are desired; most motion appears to have sharp edges and there is no visible motion blur. Appearance of motion blur is a strong perceptual cue, which is automatically present in live-action films, and synthetically generated in animated sequences. In this paper, we present an approach for automatically simulating motion blur. Ours is wholly a post-process, and uses image sequences, both stop motion or raw video, as input. First we track the frame-to-frame motion of the objects within the image plane. We then integrate the scene's appearance as it changed over a period of time. This period of time corresponds to shutter speed in live-action filming, and gives us interactive control over the extent of the induced blur. We demonstrate a simple implementation of our approach as it applies to footage of different motions and to scenes of varying complexity. Our photorealistic renderings of these input sequences approximate the effect of capturing moving objects on film that is exposed for finite periods of time.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Animation

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.3 Picture/Image Generation
          Subjects: Display algorithms
  I.4 IMAGE PROCESSING AND COMPUTER VISION

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
animation, computer vision, image-based rendering, motion blur, stop motion animation, temporal antialiasing, video post-processing