Techniques and systems are provided for generating a background picture. The background picture can be used for coding one or more pictures. For example, a method of generating a background picture includes generating a long-term background model for one or more pixels of a background picture. The long-term background model includes a statistical model for detecting long-term motion of the one or more pixels in a sequence of pictures. The method further includes generating a short-term background model for the one or more pixels of the background picture. The short-term background model detects short-term motion of the one or more pixels between two or more pictures. The method further includes determining a value for the one or more pixels of the background picture using the long-term background model and the short-term background model.