# Neural Point-based Shape Modeling of Humans in Challenging Clothing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06814 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06814/

## Key facts

- Cited by 29 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 45 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Sep 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00452/) (2020)
- [Implicit Functions in Feature Space for 3D Shape Reconstruction and Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01456/) (2020)
- [Neural Point-Based Graphics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08240/) (2019)
- [ICON: Implicit Clothed humans Obtained from Normals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09127/) (2021)
- [Generating 3D faces using Convolutional Mesh Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10267/) (2018)
- [Neural Unsigned Distance Fields for Implicit Function Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13938/) (2020)
- [Total Capture: A 3D Deformation Model for Tracking Faces, Hands, and Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01615/) (2018)
- [SNARF: Differentiable Forward Skinning for Animating Non-Rigid Neural Implicit Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03953/) (2021)
- [AGORA: Avatars in Geography Optimized for Regression Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14643/) (2021)
- [SCANimate: Weakly Supervised Learning of Skinned Clothed Avatar Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03313/) (2021)
- [DeepCap: Monocular Human Performance Capture Using Weak Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08325/) (2020)
- [H-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Rendering and Temporal Reconstruction of Humans in Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.13746/) (2021)
- [TailorNet: Predicting Clothing in 3D as a Function of Human Pose, Shape and Garment Style](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.04583/) (2020)
- [Combining Implicit Function Learning and Parametric Models for 3D Human Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11432/) (2020)
- [BCNet: Learning Body and Cloth Shape from A Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00214/) (2020)
- [CLOTH3D: Clothed 3D Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.02792/) (2019)
- [LoopReg: Self-supervised Learning of Implicit Surface Correspondences, Pose and Shape for 3D Human Mesh Registration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12447/) (2020)
- [Deep Fashion3D: A Dataset and Benchmark for 3D Garment Reconstruction from Single Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12753/) (2020)
- [Neural-GIF: Neural Generalized Implicit Functions for Animating People in Clothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08807/) (2021)
- [DeepWrinkles: Accurate and Realistic Clothing Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.03417/) (2018)
- [NPMs: Neural Parametric Models for 3D Deformable Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00702/) (2021)
- [The Power of Points for Modeling Humans in Clothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01137/) (2021)
- [Detailed, accurate, human shape estimation from clothed 3D scan sequences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.04454/) (2017)
- [Learning-Based Animation of Clothing for Virtual Try-On](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.07190/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [PointAvatar: Deformable Point-based Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08377/) (2022)
- [HiFi4G: High-Fidelity Human Performance Rendering via Compact Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03461/) (2023)
- [Learning Locally Editable Virtual Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00121/) (2023)
- [PhysAvatar: Learning the Physics of Dressed 3D Avatars from Visual Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04421/) (2024)
- [Dynamic Point Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02626/) (2023)
- [Animatable and Relightable Gaussians for High-fidelity Human Avatar Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16096/) (2023)
- [Garment Recovery with Shape and Deformation Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10356/) (2023)
- [ChatGarment: Garment Estimation, Generation and Editing via Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17811/) (2024)
- [CloSET: Modeling Clothed Humans on Continuous Surface with Explicit Template Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03167/) (2023)
- [NSF: Neural Surface Fields for Human Modeling from Monocular Depth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14847/) (2023)
- [Single View Garment Reconstruction Using Diffusion Mapping Via Pattern Coordinates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08353/) (2025)
- [GAPS: Geometry-Aware, Physics-Based, Self-Supervised Neural Garment Draping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01490/) (2023)
- [ANIM: Accurate Neural Implicit Model for Human Reconstruction from a single RGB-D image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10357/) (2024)
- [Self-supervised Learning of Implicit Shape Representation with Dense Correspondence for Deformable Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12590/) (2023)
- [Learning Anchor Transformations for 3D Garment Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.00761/) (2023)
- [Robust Biharmonic Skinning Using Geometric Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00238/) (2024)
- [PHRIT: Parametric Hand Representation with Implicit Template](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14916/) (2023)
- [AniDress: Animatable Loose-Dressed Avatar from Sparse Views Using Garment Rigging Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.15348/) (2024)
- [FreeCloth: Free-form Generation Enhances Challenging Clothed Human Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19942/) (2024)
- [D-Garment: Physically Grounded Latent Diffusion for Dynamic Garment Deformations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03468/) (2025)
- [NGL: Natural Garment Language for Training-Free Sewing Pattern Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20700/) (2026)
- [Gaussian Wardrobe: Compositional 3D Gaussian Avatars for Free-Form Virtual Try-On](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04290/) (2026)
- [Invertible Neural Skinning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09227/) (2023)
- [PocoLoco: A Point Cloud Diffusion Model of Human Shape in Loose Clothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04249/) (2024)
- [InstantGeoAvatar: Effective Geometry and Appearance Modeling of Animatable Avatars from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01512/) (2024)
- [Learning High-Fidelity Cloth Animation via Skinning-Free Image Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05593/) (2025)
- [PoseCraft: Tokenized 3D Body Landmark and Camera Conditioning for Photorealistic Human Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19350/) (2026)
- [AvatarDynamizer: From Static to Dynamic Human Avatars via Generative Dynamic Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19900/) (2026)
- [DiT-Garment: Garment Dynamics with Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18510/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Parametric 3D body models like SMPL only represent minimally-clothed people and are hard to extend to clothing because they have a fixed mesh topology and resolution. To address these limitations, recent work uses implicit surfaces or point clouds to model clothed bodies. While not limited by topology, such methods still struggle to model clothing that deviates significantly from the body, such as skirts and dresses. This is because they rely on the body to canonicalize the clothed surface by reposing it to a reference shape. Unfortunately, this process is poorly defined when clothing is far from the body. Additionally, they use linear blend skinning to pose the body and the skinning weights are tied to the underlying body parts. In contrast, we model the clothing deformation in a local coordinate space without canonicalization. We also relax the skinning weights to let multiple body parts influence the surface. Specifically, we extend point-based methods with a coarse stage, that replaces canonicalization with a learned pose-independent "coarse shape" that can capture the rough surface geometry of clothing like skirts. We then refine this using a network that infers the linear blend skinning weights and pose dependent displacements from the coarse representation. The approach works well for garments that both conform to, and deviate from, the body. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by learning person-specific avatars from examples and then show how they can be animated in new poses and motions. We also show that the method can learn directly from raw scans with missing data, greatly simplifying the process of creating realistic avatars. Code is available for research purposes at smallurlhttps://qianlim.github.io/SkiRT.