Depth from Motion—an effective way to obtain depth maps in cases of camera or object movement

Depth from Motion
2D to 3D Suite
Available for After Effects and Nuke
Nuke After Effects

General Information

Most frames in a given shot differ from one another because of camera motion or to motion of the objects in the frame. Depth values for a certain frame can be estimated by analyzing these differences between adjacent frames. The general tendency for moving objects is that the closer the object is to the camera, the greater the shift is between object edges in neighboring frames. Using this information, the Depth from Motion algorithm reconstructs motion vectors, enabling differentiation of foreground and background objects. Depth estimation, on the basis of this principle, is applicable in cases of various motion types: zooming, scene rotation and camera panning.

Useful features of Depth from Motion are:

  • Fully automatic depth map creation
  • High-quality results even for slight object movement
  • Various methods of spatial and temporal filtering

 

Source frame

Source frame from video sequence

 

Depth key frame obtained with YUVsoft Depth from Motion

Depth key frame obtained with YUVsoft Depth from Motion and the same frame edited with YUVsoft Depth Brushes and YUVsoft Depth Refinement

 

 

Depth from Motion automatically adapts to the motion rate, which is essential to yielding accurate depth maps in cases of slow camera motion. The sensitivity to motion (Look-back frames option) can be also specified manually: lower values do well with high motion speed, and higher values are more appropriate for slower movement.

Look-back frames option example

Look-back frames option example

 

Auxiliary smoothing and filtering options provide additional opportunities to improve the quality of the resulting depth maps.

The YUVsoft Depth from Motion tool provides an excellent way to increase the degree of automation in the depth map creation process using source video characteristics such as motion in the frame.

Depth from Motion
2D to 3D Suite
Available for After Effects and Nuke
Nuke After Effects

 

Sample

This video shows how to quickly create depth map and stereo of 3D TV quality for a camera motion scene.

Detailed data:

 

See also: