Patent ID: 6888577

Claim:
An image compositing apparatus that composites images together into a final composite image, the images including a video image and a plurality of graphical images, the image compositing apparatus comprising: first obtaining unit to obtain the graphical images and composition information including an image compositing order, the composition information being used for calculating a composition ratio of each of the images to the final composite image, the composition information further includes a composition coefficient for each of the images, each composition coefficient indicating a composition ratio of one of the images to a composite of the image with at least another one of the images; first compositing unit that composites the graphical images to generate one composite graphical image according to the composition information; calculating unit that calculates a composition ratio of the video image to the final composite image according to the composition information; second obtaining unit that obtains frames of the video image; second compositing unit that composites one of the obtained frames at a time with the composite graphical image using the composition ratio of the video image, wherein the image compositing order indicates a first overlaying order of the images, the composition coefficients are Î± values, each of which indicates a composition ratio of one of the images to a composite of the image with images below the image in the first overlaying order, and the calculating unit calculates the composition ratio of the video image to the final composite image from Î± values of the video image and images above the video image in the first overlaying order; switching unit for two adjacent images in the first overlaying order to rearrange the images in a second overlaying order; and updating unit for updating Î± values of the switched two adjacent images so that results of compositing in the first and second overlaying orders are the same, wherein the first compositing unit generates the composite graphical image, the calculating unit calculates the composition ratio of the video image to the final composite image, and the second compositing unit composites the frames with the composite graphical image using the second overlaying order and the updated Î± values.