Detection and removal of anomalies in digitized animation film

In this article, the problem of detecting and removing anomalies in digitized animation film is addressed. The impetus of this article comes from the motion picture industry, where several studios are rereleasing vintage film to the public which are often accompanied by visual degradation in the film color, grain, and overall quality. These degradations, or anomalies, can be seen as unwanted visual artifacts that are usually larger than one pixel in size and appear in only one frame. One of the novelties of this article is that the restoration of animation film, as opposed to "real-world" image sequences, is investigated. It often contains additional artifacts and raises other issues not found in most sequences. These artifacts are first defined, and the appropriate steps for their detection and removal are described. Experiments with the proposed algorithm were performed using scenes from the animation film Fantasia, courtesy of Walt Disney Feature Animations, and are discussed in detail. Although our algorithm was developed for the removal of artifacts on animation film, aspects of it can be applied to nonanimated film.