Patent ID: 7091993

Claim:
A computer implemented method of filling holes in a digital video object being composited comprising: assigning to each column in an alpha image an index, wherein the columns in the alpha image are comprised of alpha pixels having values, and wherein the alpha image corresponds to an image that includes the digital video object being composited; determining the values of the alpha pixels; calculating for each index an index value that is based at least in part on the values of the alpha pixels comprising the column with which the index is associated; determining indices of boundaries and sections of the object, thereby identifying the shape of the object; computing a set of a plurality of templates using the indices of the boundaries and sections of the object such that the set of templates comprises the shape of the object wherein the set of templates lies entirely within the portion of the object it represents including all boundary pixels; and adjusting one or more portions of the alpha image based at least in part on the set of templates such that the one or more portions of the alpha image that correspond to image locations that lie within the any template of the set of templates are within the set of templates are processed as being part of the object so that no holes appear in the image in image locations that correspond to alpha image locations that lie within any template of the set of templates.