# ZeroAvatar: Zero-shot 3D Avatar Generation from a Single Image

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.16411 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16411/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in 3D, point cloud and scene generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 42 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 May 2023.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [3D, point cloud and scene generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/3d-point-cloud-and-scene-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Fast R-CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.08083/) (2015)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [Magic3D: High-Resolution Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10440/) (2022)
- [End-to-end Recovery of Human Shape and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06584/) (2017)
- [Scene Representation Networks: Continuous 3D-Structure-Aware Neural Scene Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01618/) (2019)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08128/) (2016)
- [Fantasia3D: Disentangling Geometry and Appearance for High-quality Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13873/) (2023)
- [Pixel2Mesh: Generating 3D Mesh Models from Single RGB Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.01654/) (2018)
- [Score Jacobian Chaining: Lifting Pretrained 2D Diffusion Models for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00774/) (2022)
- [DensePose: Dense Human Pose Estimation In The Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.00434/) (2018)
- [Zero-Shot Text-Guided Object Generation with Dream Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01455/) (2021)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [Make-It-3D: High-Fidelity 3D Creation from A Single Image with Diffusion Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14184/) (2023)
- [Omnidata: A Scalable Pipeline for Making Multi-Task Mid-Level Vision Datasets from 3D Scans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04994/) (2021)
- [Text2Mesh: Text-Driven Neural Stylization for Meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03221/) (2021)
- [TEXTure: Text-Guided Texturing of 3D Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01721/) (2023)
- [ICON: Implicit Clothed humans Obtained from Normals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09127/) (2021)
- [PyMAF: 3D Human Pose and Shape Regression with Pyramidal Mesh Alignment Feedback Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16507/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [GaussianDreamer: Fast Generation from Text to 3D Gaussians by Bridging 2D and 3D Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08529/) (2023)
- [GauHuman: Articulated Gaussian Splatting from Monocular Human Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02973/) (2023)
- [Cascade-Zero123: One Image to Highly Consistent 3D with Self-Prompted Nearby Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04424/) (2023)
- [Disentangled Clothed Avatar Generation from Text Descriptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05295/) (2023)
- [HarmonyView: Harmonizing Consistency and Diversity in One-Image-to-3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15980/) (2023)
- [Template-Free Single-View 3D Human Digitalization with Diffusion-Guided LRM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12175/) (2024)
- [Motion Avatar: Generate Human and Animal Avatars with Arbitrary Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11286/) (2024)
- [GaussianDreamerPro: Text to Manipulable 3D Gaussians with Highly Enhanced Quality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18462/) (2024)
- [GSNeRF: Generalizable Semantic Neural Radiance Fields with Enhanced 3D Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03608/) (2024)
- [A Survey on 3D Human Avatar Modeling -- From Reconstruction to Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04253/) (2024)
- [LiftImage3D: Lifting Any Single Image to 3D Gaussians with Video Generation Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09597/) (2024)
- [OccFusion: Rendering Occluded Humans with Generative Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00316/) (2024)
- [HumanCoser: Layered 3D Human Generation via Semantic-Aware Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11357/) (2024)
- [HumanGif: Single-View Human Diffusion with Generative Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12080/) (2025)
- [Towards In-the-wild 3D Plane Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02493/) (2025)
- [Layered 3D Human Generation via Semantic-Aware Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05804/) (2023)
- [TEDRA: Text-based Editing of Dynamic and Photoreal Actors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15995/) (2024)
- [InceptionHuman: Controllable Prompt-to-NeRF for Photorealistic 3D Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16499/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in text-to-image generation have enabled significant progress in zero-shot 3D shape generation. This is achieved by score distillation, a methodology that uses pre-trained text-to-image diffusion models to optimize the parameters of a 3D neural presentation, e.g. Neural Radiance Field (NeRF). While showing promising results, existing methods are often not able to preserve the geometry of complex shapes, such as human bodies. To address this challenge, we present ZeroAvatar, a method that introduces the explicit 3D human body prior to the optimization process. Specifically, we first estimate and refine the parameters of a parametric human body from a single image. Then during optimization, we use the posed parametric body as additional geometry constraint to regularize the diffusion model as well as the underlying density field. Lastly, we propose a UV-guided texture regularization term to further guide the completion of texture on invisible body parts. We show that ZeroAvatar significantly enhances the robustness and 3D consistency of optimization-based image-to-3D avatar generation, outperforming existing zero-shot image-to-3D methods.