opencv_trail_effect is an experiment about recreating the "trail effect"[1], which can be seen in some cool music videos, automatically and in real-time, and even without the use of a green-screen. [1] http://dailypsychedelicvideo.com/tag/trail-effect/ Some examples of it are: The Jacksons - Blame It On The Boogie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkBS4zUjJZo OK Go - WTF? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zJw9varYE Elisa - L'Anima Vola - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqhxIQD16EA Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qchPLaiKocI Kool & The Gang - Steppin' Out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRuiVyq2Akc Earth, Wind & Fire - September - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk opencv_trail_effect draws a trail after performing foreground segmentation using OpenCV. Segmentation in opencv_trail_effect can done using either thresholding or background subtraction. A few conditions are required to create a decent effect: 1. the camera should not move; 2. the lighting in the scene should be quite stable (when doing background subtraction it is recommended to disable auto-gain in the camera, and avoid any artifact introduced by the power line frequency); 3. the subject should enter the scene only after the background learning phase has finished, i.e. after opencv_trail_effect has shown the preview window. Examples of use --------------- The effect in "Blame It On The Boogie" could be described as a short faded trail and can be achieved with this command line: $ ./opencv_trail_effect -l 12 -s background -d fadeaccumulate The effect in "WTF?" is equivalent to an infinite trail in which the isolated foreground is copied on the background and stays there, it can be achieved with this command line: $ ./opencv_trail_effect -l -1 -s background -d copy The effect in "L'Anima Vola" seems to have a "catch-up" behavior; that one can be done by drawing the trail in reverse, with this command line: $ ./opencv_trail_effect -l 30 -s background -d copy -r Another effect seen in movies can be obtained by doing the average of the frames in the trail, possibly with the most recent frame drawn on top: $ ./opencv_trail_effect -l 10 -s background -d average -B Here is a video showing the examples from above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3oRozxt2O4 Side note ------------------- These effects can bring to mind other cool effects in music videos, like the frame shuffling effect in Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q), that one can be done with the nervousTV plugin from effectv (https://fukuchi.org/research/effectv/index.html.en) or frei0r filters (https://www.dyne.org/software/frei0r/), for example with: $ gst-launch-1.0 -v v4l2src ! videoconvert ! frei0r-filter-nervous ! videoconvert ! autovideosink