SMPTE 2019: Neural Networks Hold Promise for VFX Auto-Rotoscoping

But can some of the same tools--specifically those that power computer vision--be used to remove the drudgery and long hours VFX artists face when it comes to rotoscoping? Oscar Estrada, a recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology's Motion Picture Science program, was determined to find out. Estrada presented his research Oct. 21, the opening day of the SMPTE 2019 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In his presentation, "Rotoscope Automation with Deep Learning," Estrada laid out his thesis research looking at whether the use of a convolutional neural network could be used to extract a person or persons from a video clip without human intervention. Convolutional neural networks are particularly well-suited to the task of rotoscoping as opposed to other neural network techniques, especially when large images like 4K are at play, he said.