Video‐Based Rendering of Dynamic Stationary Environments from Unsynchronized Inputs

Abstract Image‐Based Rendering allows users to easily capture a scene using a single camera and then navigate freely with realistic results. However, the resulting renderings are completely static, and dynamic effects – such as fire, waterfalls or small waves – cannot be reproduced. We tackle the challenging problem of enabling free‐viewpoint navigation including such stationary dynamic effects, but still maintaining the simplicity of casual capture. Using a single camera – instead of previous complex synchronized multi‐camera setups – means that we have unsynchronized videos of the dynamic effect from multiple views, making it hard to blend them when synthesizing novel views. We present a solution that allows smooth free‐viewpoint video‐based rendering (VBR) of such scenes using temporal Laplacian pyramid decomposition video, enabling spatio‐temporal blending. For effects such as fire and waterfalls, that are semi‐transparent and occupy 3D space, we first estimate their spatial volume. This allows us to create per‐video geometries and alpha‐matte videos that we can blend using our frequency‐dependent method. We also extend Laplacian blending to the temporal dimension to remove additional temporal seams. We show results on scenes containing fire, waterfalls or rippling waves at the seaside, bringing these scenes to life.