# Efficient 3D Articulated Human Generation with Layered Surface Volumes

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.05462 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05462/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 78 of its 97 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jul 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 78)

- [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)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.06434/) (2015)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Magic3D: High-Resolution Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10440/) (2022)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Alias-Free Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12423/) (2021)
- [GIRAFFE: Representing Scenes as Compositional Generative Neural Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12100/) (2020)
- [pi-GAN: Periodic Implicit Generative Adversarial Networks for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00926/) (2020)
- [GRAF: Generative Radiance Fields for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02442/) (2020)
- [Score Jacobian Chaining: Lifting Pretrained 2D Diffusion Models for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00774/) (2022)
- [Learning a Probabilistic Latent Space of Object Shapes via 3D Generative-Adversarial Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.07584/) (2016)
- [StyleNeRF: A Style-based 3D-Aware Generator for High-resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08985/) (2021)
- [GET3D: A Generative Model of High Quality 3D Textured Shapes Learned from Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.11163/) (2022)
- [Modular Primitives for High-Performance Differentiable Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.03277/) (2020)
- [Advances in Neural Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05849/) (2021)
- [StyleSDF: High-Resolution 3D-Consistent Image and Geometry Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.11427/) (2021)
- [ICON: Implicit Clothed humans Obtained from Normals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09127/) (2021)
- [3D Neural Field Generation using Triplane Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16677/) (2022)
- [Single-View View Synthesis with Multiplane Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11364/) (2020)
- [ARCH: Animatable Reconstruction of Clothed Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04572/) (2020)
- [SNARF: Differentiable Forward Skinning for Animating Non-Rigid Neural Implicit Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03953/) (2021)
- [GRAM: Generative Radiance Manifolds for 3D-Aware Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08867/) (2021)
- [ARCH++: Animation-Ready Clothed Human Reconstruction Revisited](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07845/) (2021)
- [Escaping Plato's Cave: 3D Shape From Adversarial Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.11606/) (2018)
- [Learning to Reconstruct People in Clothing from a Single RGB Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.05885/) (2019)
- [Tex2Shape: Detailed Full Human Body Geometry From a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08645/) (2019)
- [BlockGAN: Learning 3D Object-aware Scene Representations from Unlabelled Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.08988/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [HumanNorm: Learning Normal Diffusion Model for High-quality and Realistic 3D Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01406/) (2023)
- [Advances in 3D Generation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17807/) (2024)
- [Gaussian Shell Maps for Efficient 3D Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17857/) (2023)
- [PhysAvatar: Learning the Physics of Dressed 3D Avatars from Visual Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04421/) (2024)
- [Disentangled Clothed Avatar Generation from Text Descriptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05295/) (2023)
- [ClotheDreamer: Text-Guided Garment Generation with 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16815/) (2024)
- [MPMAvatar: Learning 3D Gaussian Avatars with Accurate and Robust Physics-Based Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01619/) (2025)
- [Disentangled Clothed Avatar Generation with Layered Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04631/) (2025)
- [Progressive Rendering Distillation: Adapting Stable Diffusion for Instant Text-to-Mesh Generation without 3D Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21694/) (2025)
- [Generative Human Geometry Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01448/) (2025)
- [Human Geometry Distribution for 3D Animation Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07459/) (2025)
- [LegacyAvatars: Volumetric Face Avatars For Traditional Graphics Pipelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12285/) (2026)
- [HandDreamer: Zero-Shot Text to 3D Hand Model Generation using Corrective Hand Shape Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04425/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Access to high-quality and diverse 3D articulated digital human assets is crucial in various applications, ranging from virtual reality to social platforms. Generative approaches, such as 3D generative adversarial networks (GANs), are rapidly replacing laborious manual content creation tools. However, existing 3D GAN frameworks typically rely on scene representations that leverage either template meshes, which are fast but offer limited quality, or volumes, which offer high capacity but are slow to render, thereby limiting the 3D fidelity in GAN settings. In this work, we introduce layered surface volumes (LSVs) as a new 3D object representation for articulated digital humans. LSVs represent a human body using multiple textured mesh layers around a conventional template. These layers are rendered using alpha compositing with fast differentiable rasterization, and they can be interpreted as a volumetric representation that allocates its capacity to a manifold of finite thickness around the template. Unlike conventional single-layer templates that struggle with representing fine off-surface details like hair or accessories, our surface volumes naturally capture such details. LSVs can be articulated, and they exhibit exceptional efficiency in GAN settings, where a 2D generator learns to synthesize the RGBA textures for the individual layers. Trained on unstructured, single-view 2D image datasets, our LSV-GAN generates high-quality and view-consistent 3D articulated digital humans without the need for view-inconsistent 2D upsampling networks.