Selecting Interesting Image Regions to Automatically Create Cinemagraphs

A cinemagraph is a novel medium that infuses a static image with the dynamics of one or several particular image regions. It is in many ways intermediate between a photograph and video, and it has numerous potential applications, such as in the creation of dynamic scenes in computer games and interactive environments. However, creating cinemagraphs is a time-consuming process requiring high proficiency in photo-editing techniques. This article presents a novel framework for automatically creating cinemagraphs from video sequences, with specific emphasis on determining the composition of masks and layers in creating aesthetically pleasing cinemagraphs. Treating video as a spatiotemporal data volume, the problem is considered a type of constrained optimization problem involving the discovery of a connected subgraph in video frames with maximal cumulative interestingness scores. The proposed framework accommodates multiple criteria describing qualities of interest in local image patches based on appearance and motion. Furthermore, the selected regions are not limited to certain shapes - the proposed approach facilitates capturing arbitrary objects. Experiments demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach. The findings of this study provide valuable information regarding various design choices for developing an easy and versatile authoring tool for cinemagraphs.