# Preface: A Data-driven Volumetric Prior for Few-shot Ultra High-resolution Face Synthesis

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.16859 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16859/

## Key facts

- Cited by 37 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 58 of its 77 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Sep 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 58)

- [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)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.7766/) (2014)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03832/) (2015)
- [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)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Nerfies: Deformable Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12948/) (2020)
- [On First-Order Meta-Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02999/) (2018)
- [Volume Rendering of Neural Implicit Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12052/) (2021)
- [NeRF++: Analyzing and Improving Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.07492/) (2020)
- [GIRAFFE: Representing Scenes as Compositional Generative Neural Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12100/) (2020)
- [MVSNeRF: Fast Generalizable Radiance Field Reconstruction from Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15595/) (2021)
- [pi-GAN: Periodic Implicit Generative Adversarial Networks for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00926/) (2020)
- [IBRNet: Learning Multi-View Image-Based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.13090/) (2021)
- [Differentiable Volumetric Rendering: Learning Implicit 3D Representations without 3D Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.07372/) (2019)
- [GRAF: Generative Radiance Fields for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02442/) (2020)
- [Image2StyleGAN: How to Embed Images Into the StyleGAN Latent Space?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03189/) (2019)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [RegNeRF: Regularizing Neural Radiance Fields for View Synthesis from Sparse Inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00724/) (2021)
- [MediaPipe: A Framework for Building Perception Pipelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08172/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [HeadGAP: Few-Shot 3D Head Avatar via Generalizable Gaussian Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06019/) (2024)
- [MonoNPHM: Dynamic Head Reconstruction from Monocular Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06740/) (2023)
- [FATE: Full-head Gaussian Avatar with Textural Editing from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15604/) (2024)
- [Vid2Avatar-Pro: Authentic Avatar from Videos in the Wild via Universal Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01610/) (2025)
- [FaceLift: Learning Generalizable Single Image 3D Face Reconstruction from Synthetic Heads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17812/) (2024)
- [VRMM: A Volumetric Relightable Morphable Head Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04101/) (2024)
- [OHTA: One-shot Hand Avatar via Data-driven Implicit Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18969/) (2024)
- [InsTaG: Learning Personalized 3D Talking Head from Few-Second Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20387/) (2025)
- [Arc2Avatar: Generating Expressive 3D Avatars from a Single Image via ID Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05379/) (2025)
- [One2Avatar: Generative Implicit Head Avatar For Few-shot User Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11909/) (2024)
- [Synthetic Prior for Few-Shot Drivable Head Avatar Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06903/) (2025)
- [MetaCap: Meta-learning Priors from Multi-View Imagery for Sparse-view Human Performance Capture and Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18820/) (2024)
- [SEGA: Drivable 3D Gaussian Head Avatar from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14373/) (2025)
- [ImFace++: A Sophisticated Nonlinear 3D Morphable Face Model with Implicit Neural Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04028/) (2023)
- [GPHM: Gaussian Parametric Head Model for Monocular Head Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15070/) (2024)
- [GASP: Gaussian Avatars with Synthetic Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07739/) (2024)
- [HairCUP: Hair Compositional Universal Prior for 3D Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19481/) (2025)
- [Anatomically Constrained Implicit Face Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07538/) (2023)
- [MagicMirror: Fast and High-Quality Avatar Generation with a Constrained Search Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01296/) (2024)
- [Dream, Lift, Animate: From Single Images to Animatable Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15979/) (2025)
- [Sparse-View 3D Reconstruction: Recent Advances and Open Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16406/) (2025)
- [Generalizable Neural Human Renderer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.14199/) (2024)
- [Coherent 3D Portrait Video Reconstruction via Triplane Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00794/) (2024)
- [Learning Interaction-aware 3D Gaussian Splatting for One-shot Hand Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08840/) (2024)
- [Parametric Gaussian Human Model: Generalizable Prior for Efficient and Realistic Human Avatar Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06645/) (2025)
- [HyperGaussians: High-Dimensional Gaussian Splatting for High-Fidelity Animatable Face Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02803/) (2025)
- [FaceFolds: Meshed Radiance Manifolds for Efficient Volumetric Rendering of Dynamic Faces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13807/) (2024)
- [Coherent3D: Coherent 3D Portrait Video Reconstruction via Triplane Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.08684/) (2024)
- [Improving Facial Rig Semantics for Tracking and Retargeting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08429/) (2025)
- [Using Gaussian Splats to Create High-Fidelity Facial Geometry and Texture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16397/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

NeRFs have enabled highly realistic synthesis of human faces including complex appearance and reflectance effects of hair and skin. These methods typically require a large number of multi-view input images, making the process hardware intensive and cumbersome, limiting applicability to unconstrained settings. We propose a novel volumetric human face prior that enables the synthesis of ultra high-resolution novel views of subjects that are not part of the prior's training distribution. This prior model consists of an identity-conditioned NeRF, trained on a dataset of low-resolution multi-view images of diverse humans with known camera calibration. A simple sparse landmark-based 3D alignment of the training dataset allows our model to learn a smooth latent space of geometry and appearance despite a limited number of training identities. A high-quality volumetric representation of a novel subject can be obtained by model fitting to 2 or 3 camera views of arbitrary resolution. Importantly, our method requires as few as two views of casually captured images as input at inference time.