# HumanLiff: Layer-wise 3D Human Generation with Diffusion Model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.09712 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09712/

## Key facts

- Cited by 23 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 78 of its 90 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Aug 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 78)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05600/) (2019)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [Palette: Image-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05826/) (2021)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Improved Techniques for Training Score-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09011/) (2020)
- [An Introduction to Variational Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02691/) (2019)
- [Direct Voxel Grid Optimization: Super-fast Convergence for Radiance Fields Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11215/) (2021)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [GIRAFFE: Representing Scenes as Compositional Generative Neural Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12100/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Probabilistic Models for 3D Point Cloud Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01458/) (2021)
- [Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08128/) (2016)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00452/) (2020)
- [3D Shape Generation and Completion through Point-Voxel Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03670/) (2021)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [StyleNeRF: A Style-based 3D-Aware Generator for High-resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08985/) (2021)
- [Everybody Dance Now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07371/) (2018)
- [Rodin: A Generative Model for Sculpting 3D Digital Avatars Using Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06135/) (2022)
- [Novel View Synthesis with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.04628/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [GaussianDreamer: Fast Generation from Text to 3D Gaussians by Bridging 2D and 3D Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08529/) (2023)
- [HumanNorm: Learning Normal Diffusion Model for High-quality and Realistic 3D Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01406/) (2023)
- [PrimDiffusion: Volumetric Primitives Diffusion for 3D Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04559/) (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)
- [Frankenstein: Generating Semantic-Compositional 3D Scenes in One Tri-Plane](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16210/) (2024)
- [GALA: Generating Animatable Layered Assets from a Single Scan](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12979/) (2024)
- [TELA: Text to Layer-wise 3D Clothed Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16748/) (2024)
- [PhyCAGE: Physically Plausible Compositional 3D Asset Generation from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18548/) (2024)
- [GaussianDreamerPro: Text to Manipulable 3D Gaussians with Highly Enhanced Quality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18462/) (2024)
- [Portrait3D: Text-Guided High-Quality 3D Portrait Generation Using Pyramid Representation and GANs Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10394/) (2024)
- [LiftImage3D: Lifting Any Single Image to 3D Gaussians with Video Generation Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09597/) (2024)
- [E3Gen: Efficient, Expressive and Editable Avatars Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19203/) (2024)
- [SimAvatar: Simulation-Ready Avatars with Layered Hair and Clothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09545/) (2024)
- [LAGA: Layered 3D Avatar Generation and Customization via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12663/) (2024)
- [HumanCoser: Layered 3D Human Generation via Semantic-Aware Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11357/) (2024)
- [Disentangled Clothed Avatar Generation with Layered Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04631/) (2025)
- [HumanGif: Single-View Human Diffusion with Generative Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12080/) (2025)
- [Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.11430/) (2025)
- [WonderHuman: Hallucinating Unseen Parts in Dynamic 3D Human Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01045/) (2025)
- [WildAvatar: Learning In-the-wild 3D Avatars from the Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02165/) (2024)
- [Layered 3D Human Generation via Semantic-Aware Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05804/) (2023)
- [HandDreamer: Zero-Shot Text to 3D Hand Model Generation using Corrective Hand Shape Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04425/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

3D human generation from 2D images has achieved remarkable progress through the synergistic utilization of neural rendering and generative models. Existing 3D human generative models mainly generate a clothed 3D human as an undetectable 3D model in a single pass, while rarely considering the layer-wise nature of a clothed human body, which often consists of the human body and various clothes such as underwear, outerwear, trousers, shoes, etc. In this work, we propose HumanLiff, the first layer-wise 3D human generative model with a unified diffusion process. Specifically, HumanLiff firstly generates minimal-clothed humans, represented by tri-plane features, in a canonical space, and then progressively generates clothes in a layer-wise manner. In this way, the 3D human generation is thus formulated as a sequence of diffusion-based 3D conditional generation. To reconstruct more fine-grained 3D humans with tri-plane representation, we propose a tri-plane shift operation that splits each tri-plane into three sub-planes and shifts these sub-planes to enable feature grid subdivision. To further enhance the controllability of 3D generation with 3D layered conditions, HumanLiff hierarchically fuses tri-plane features and 3D layered conditions to facilitate the 3D diffusion model learning. Extensive experiments on two layer-wise 3D human datasets, SynBody (synthetic) and TightCap (real-world), validate that HumanLiff significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in layer-wise 3D human generation. Our code will be available at https://skhu101.github.io/HumanLiff.