As an alternative to current two-dimensional (2-D) motion models, a robust three-dimensional (3-D) motion estimation method is proposed to be utilized in object-based video coding applications. Since the popular E-matrix method is well known for its susceptibility to input errors, a performance indicator, which tests the validity of the estimated 3-D motion parameters both explicitly and implicitly, is defined. This indicator is utilized within the RANSAC method to obtain a robust set of 2-D motion correspondences which leads to better 3-D motion parameters for each object. The experimental results support the superiority of the proposed method over direct application of the E-matrix method.