# StyleGANEX: StyleGAN-Based Manipulation Beyond Cropped Aligned Faces

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.06146 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06146/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 38 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Mar 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [Towards Accurate Generative Models of Video: A New Metric & Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.01717/) (2018)
- [Training Generative Adversarial Networks with Limited Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.06676/) (2020)
- [Alias-Free Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12423/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis and Semantic Manipulation with Conditional GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.11585/) (2017)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [StyleCLIP: Text-Driven Manipulation of StyleGAN Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.17249/) (2021)
- [Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10833/) (2021)
- [Encoding in Style: a StyleGAN Encoder for Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.00951/) (2020)
- [Interpreting the Latent Space of GANs for Semantic Face Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10786/) (2019)
- [Image2StyleGAN: How to Embed Images Into the StyleGAN Latent Space?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03189/) (2019)
- [BiSeNet: Bilateral Segmentation Network for Real-time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00897/) (2018)
- [GANSpace: Discovering Interpretable GAN Controls](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02546/) (2020)
- [Designing an Encoder for StyleGAN Image Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02766/) (2021)
- [Pivotal Tuning for Latent-based Editing of Real Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05744/) (2021)
- [In-Domain GAN Inversion for Real Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00049/) (2020)
- [Closed-Form Factorization of Latent Semantics in GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.06600/) (2020)
- [InterFaceGAN: Interpreting the Disentangled Face Representation Learned by GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.09635/) (2020)
- [StyleFlow: Attribute-conditioned Exploration of StyleGAN-Generated Images using Conditional Continuous Normalizing Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.02401/) (2020)
- [ReStyle: A Residual-Based StyleGAN Encoder via Iterative Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02699/) (2021)
- [High-Fidelity GAN Inversion for Image Attribute Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06590/) (2021)
- [StyleHEAT: One-Shot High-Resolution Editable Talking Face Generation via Pre-trained StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.04036/) (2022)
- [GLEAN: Generative Latent Bank for Large-Factor Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00739/) (2020)
- [Talk-to-Edit: Fine-Grained Facial Editing via Dialog](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.04425/) (2021)
- [Resolution Dependent GAN Interpolation for Controllable Image Synthesis Between Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.05334/) (2020)
- [HyperInverter: Improving StyleGAN Inversion via Hypernetwork](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00719/) (2021)
- [StyleGAN2 Distillation for Feed-forward Image Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.03581/) (2020)
- [Stitch it in Time: GAN-Based Facial Editing of Real Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08361/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Controllable Video Generation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16869/) (2025)
- [RenderMe-360: A Large Digital Asset Library and Benchmarks Towards High-fidelity Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13353/) (2023)
- [TextToon: Real-Time Text Toonify Head Avatar from Single Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07160/) (2024)
- [Generative AI for Cel-Animation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06250/) (2025)
- [Deformable One-shot Face Stylization via DINO Semantic Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00459/) (2024)
- [RIGID: Recurrent GAN Inversion and Editing of Real Face Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06097/) (2023)
- [BeautyBank: Encoding Facial Makeup in Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11231/) (2024)
- [Collaboration and Controversy Among Experts: Rumor Early Detection by Tuning a Comment Generator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04076/) (2025)
- [TriDF: Evaluating Perception, Detection, and Hallucination for Interpretable DeepFake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10652/) (2025)
- [Video Face Re-Aging: Toward Temporally Consistent Face Re-Aging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11642/) (2023)
- [ToonAging: Face Re-Aging upon Artistic Portrait Style Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02733/) (2024)
- [ToonifyGB: StyleGAN-based Gaussian Blendshapes for 3D Stylized Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10072/) (2025)
- [S3Editor: A Sparse Semantic-Disentangled Self-Training Framework for Face Video Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08111/) (2024)
- [Subjective Face Transform using Human First Impressions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15381/) (2023)
- [Real Face Video Animation Platform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.18955/) (2024)
- [Geometry-Aware Texture Generation for 3D Head Modeling with Artist-driven Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04387/) (2025)
- [GaitCrafter: Diffusion Model for Biometric Preserving Gait Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13300/) (2025)
- [DeepForgeSeal: Latent Space-Driven Semi-Fragile Watermarking for Deepfake Detection Using Adversarial Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.04949/) (2025)
- [ReAge3D: Re-Aging 3D Faces with View Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18156/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in face manipulation using StyleGAN have produced impressive results. However, StyleGAN is inherently limited to cropped aligned faces at a fixed image resolution it is pre-trained on. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective solution to this limitation by using dilated convolutions to rescale the receptive fields of shallow layers in StyleGAN, without altering any model parameters. This allows fixed-size small features at shallow layers to be extended into larger ones that can accommodate variable resolutions, making them more robust in characterizing unaligned faces. To enable real face inversion and manipulation, we introduce a corresponding encoder that provides the first-layer feature of the extended StyleGAN in addition to the latent style code. We validate the effectiveness of our method using unaligned face inputs of various resolutions in a diverse set of face manipulation tasks, including facial attribute editing, super-resolution, sketch/mask-to-face translation, and face toonification.