# ECON: Explicit Clothed humans Optimized via Normal integration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.07422 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07422/

## Key facts

- Cited by 199 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 71 of its 109 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Dec 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 71)

- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Mask R-CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06870/) (2017)
- [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)
- [Random Erasing Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.04896/) (2017)
- [End-to-end Recovery of Human Shape and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06584/) (2017)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [Accelerating 3D Deep Learning with PyTorch3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08501/) (2020)
- [Learning to Reconstruct 3D Human Pose and Shape via Model-fitting in the Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12828/) (2019)
- [MediaPipe: A Framework for Building Perception Pipelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08172/) (2019)
- [PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00452/) (2020)
- [GET3D: A Generative Model of High Quality 3D Textured Shapes Learned from Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.11163/) (2022)
- [Implicit Functions in Feature Space for 3D Shape Reconstruction and Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01456/) (2020)
- [PARE: Part Attention Regressor for 3D Human Body Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08527/) (2021)
- [HybrIK: A Hybrid Analytical-Neural Inverse Kinematics Solution for 3D Human Pose and Shape Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.14672/) (2020)
- [ICON: Implicit Clothed humans Obtained from Normals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09127/) (2021)
- [Neural Unsigned Distance Fields for Implicit Function Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13938/) (2020)
- [ARCH: Animatable Reconstruction of Clothed Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04572/) (2020)
- [PyMAF: 3D Human Pose and Shape Regression with Pyramidal Mesh Alignment Feedback Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16507/) (2021)
- [Function4D: Real-time Human Volumetric Capture from Very Sparse Consumer RGBD Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01859/) (2021)
- [Multi-Garment Net: Learning to Dress 3D People from Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06903/) (2019)
- [Total Capture: A 3D Deformation Model for Tracking Faces, Hands, and Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01615/) (2018)
- [Video Based Reconstruction of 3D People Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.04758/) (2018)
- [PaMIR: Parametric Model-Conditioned Implicit Representation for Image-based Human Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.03858/) (2020)
- [Monocular, One-stage, Regression of Multiple 3D People](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.12272/) (2020)
- [AGORA: Avatars in Geography Optimized for Regression Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14643/) (2021)
- [DeepHuman: 3D Human Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.06473/) (2019)
- [Embodied Hands: Modeling and Capturing Hands and Bodies Together](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.02610/) (2022)
- [Generating Holistic 3D Human Motion from Speech](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04420/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 199)

- [Sapiens: Foundation for Human Vision Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12569/) (2024)
- [GaussianAvatar: Towards Realistic Human Avatar Modeling from a Single Video via Animatable 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02134/) (2023)
- [HUGS: Human Gaussian Splats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17910/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Inductive Biases for Surface Normal Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00712/) (2024)
- [TADA! Text to Animatable Digital Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10899/) (2023)
- [TeCH: Text-guided Reconstruction of Lifelike Clothed Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08545/) (2023)
- [3D Human Pose Estimation via Intuitive Physics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18246/) (2023)
- [DNA-Rendering: A Diverse Neural Actor Repository for High-Fidelity Human-centric Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10173/) (2023)
- [Hi3DGen: High-fidelity 3D Geometry Generation from Images via Normal Bridging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22236/) (2025)
- [TokenHMR: Advancing Human Mesh Recovery with a Tokenized Pose Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16752/) (2024)
- [TesserAct: Learning 4D Embodied World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.20995/) (2025)
- [TRACE: 5D Temporal Regression of Avatars with Dynamic Cameras in 3D Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02850/) (2023)
- [SIFU: Side-view Conditioned Implicit Function for Real-world Usable Clothed Human Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06704/) (2023)
- [SiTH: Single-view Textured Human Reconstruction with Image-Conditioned Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15855/) (2023)
- [GAvatar: Animatable 3D Gaussian Avatars with Implicit Mesh Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11461/) (2023)
- [Advances in 3D Generation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17807/) (2024)
- [IDOL: Instant Photorealistic 3D Human Creation from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14963/) (2024)
- [4D-DRESS: A 4D Dataset of Real-world Human Clothing with Semantic Annotations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18630/) (2024)
- [HumanSplat: Generalizable Single-Image Human Gaussian Splatting with Structure Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12459/) (2024)
- [Learning Disentangled Avatars with Hybrid 3D Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06441/) (2023)
- [Human-3Diffusion: Realistic Avatar Creation via Explicit 3D Consistent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08475/) (2024)
- [Global-correlated 3D-decoupling Transformer for Clothed Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13524/) (2023)
- [Single-Image 3D Human Digitization with Shape-Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09221/) (2023)
- [Generalizable Human Gaussians for Sparse View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12777/) (2024)
- [Template Free Reconstruction of Human-object Interaction with Procedural Interaction Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07063/) (2023)
- [AvatarBooth: High-Quality and Customizable 3D Human Avatar Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09864/) (2023)
- [GaussianBody: Clothed Human Reconstruction via 3d Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09720/) (2024)
- [AniGS: Animatable Gaussian Avatar from a Single Image with Inconsistent Gaussian Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02684/) (2024)
- [Towards Garment Sewing Pattern Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04218/) (2023)
- [Disentangled Clothed Avatar Generation from Text Descriptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05295/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The combination of deep learning, artist-curated scans, and Implicit Functions (IF), is enabling the creation of detailed, clothed, 3D humans from images. However, existing methods are far from perfect. IF-based methods recover free-form geometry, but produce disembodied limbs or degenerate shapes for novel poses or clothes. To increase robustness for these cases, existing work uses an explicit parametric body model to constrain surface reconstruction, but this limits the recovery of free-form surfaces such as loose clothing that deviates from the body. What we want is a method that combines the best properties of implicit representation and explicit body regularization. To this end, we make two key observations: (1) current networks are better at inferring detailed 2D maps than full-3D surfaces, and (2) a parametric model can be seen as a "canvas" for stitching together detailed surface patches. Based on these, our method, ECON, has three main steps: (1) It infers detailed 2D normal maps for the front and back side of a clothed person. (2) From these, it recovers 2.5D front and back surfaces, called d-BiNI, that are equally detailed, yet incomplete, and registers these w.r.t. each other with the help of a SMPL-X body mesh recovered from the image. (3) It "inpaints" the missing geometry between d-BiNI surfaces. If the face and hands are noisy, they can optionally be replaced with the ones of SMPL-X. As a result, ECON infers high-fidelity 3D humans even in loose clothes and challenging poses. This goes beyond previous methods, according to the quantitative evaluation on the CAPE and Renderpeople datasets. Perceptual studies also show that ECON's perceived realism is better by a large margin. Code and models are available for research purposes at econ.is.tue.mpg.de