<p>The problem of separating a non-rectangular foreground image from a background image is a classical problem in image processing and analysis, known as matting or keying. A common example is a film frame where an actor is extracted from the background to later be placed on a different background. Compositing of these objects against a new background is one of the most common operations in the creation of visual effects. When the original background is of non-constant color the matting becomes an under determined problem, for which a unique solution cannot be found. </p><p>This thesis describes a framework for computing mattes from images with backgrounds of non-constant color, using Bayesian statistics. Foreground and background color distributions are modeled as oriented Gaussians and optimal color and opacity values are determined using a maximum a posteriori approach. Together with information from optical flow algorithms, the framework produces mattes for image sequences without needing user input for each frame. </p><p>The approach used in this thesis differs from previous research in a few areas. The optimal order of processing is determined in a different way and sampling of color values is changed to work more efficiently on high-resolution images. Finally a gradient-guided local smoothness constraint can optionally be used to improve results for cases where the normal technique produces poor results.</p>

The problem of separating a non-rectangular foreground image from a background image is a classical problem in image processing and analysis, known as matting or keying. A common example is a film frame where an actor is extracted from the background to later be placed on a different background. Compositing of these objects against a new background is one of the most common operations in the creation of visual effects. When the original background is of non-constant color the matting becomes an under determined problem, for which a unique solution cannot be found. This thesis describes a framework for computing mattes from images with backgrounds of non-constant color, using Bayesian statistics. Foreground and background color distributions are modeled as oriented Gaussians and optimal color and opacity values are determined using a maximum a posteriori approach. Together with information from optical flow algorithms, the framework produces mattes for image sequences without needing user input for each frame. The approach used in this thesis differs from previous research in a few areas. The optimal order of processing is determined in a different way and sampling of color values is changed to work more efficiently on high-resolution images. Finally a gradient-guided local smoothness constraint can optionally be used to improve results for cases where the normal technique produces poor results.