Picture encoding methods based on the iterated function system (IFS) have been reported. However, they are designed for still pictures and few reports have been made for moving pictures. This paper proposes a coding method for moving pictures based on the recurrent iterated function system (RIFS). In RIFS, the function systems of contraction mappings in multiple spaces are composed. In this study, it is assumed that by using a sequence of moving pictures for multiple spaces, moving pictures can be coded. In this proposed method, several frames are treated as a group and the search in coding is adaptively switched, using the block (range cell) of each frame. The search is adaptively switched depending on whether the group of cells belongs to the still range or to the moving range. Using this technique, the degrees of spatial and time redundancy are reduced. This method is simulated to prove its validity. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 82(8): 32–41, 1999