A video compression method of estimating a motion vector representative of a difference between a reference frame and a current frame is described. Typically, both the reference frame and the current frame include background and foreground data. In the method a block of the current frame is selected for analysis, and a determination is made whether the block selected is a foreground block or a background block. If the block is a foreground block, then it is compared with predetermined search points in the reference frame. On the other hand, if the block is a background block, it is compared with predetermined search points in only a portion of the reference frame.