1. A method of motion estimation for processing images in an image sequence comprising: at least a first image and a second image, a motion vector being associated to said first and second images and being defined in a coordinate system having at least a first direction and a second direction, said second direction being different from said first direction; said motion vector having a first previous component value (MVDI(O)) in the first direction; said method comprising the steps of: /a/ defining a first image portion in the first image and a second image portion in the second image based on said first previous component value of the motion vector; /b/ determining a first characteristics vector for the first image in the first image portion and a second characteristics vector for the second image in the second image portion; /c/ estimating a first shift value between said first and second images by comparing said first and second characteristics vectors; /d/ obtaining a second current component value based on said first shift value; and /e/ obtaining a first current component value; wherein the motion vector is defined by the first and second current component values.