# A Large-Scale 3D Face Mesh Video Dataset via Neural Re-parameterized Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.03205 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03205/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 62 of its 95 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Oct 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 62)

- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.7766/) (2014)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [HowTo100M: Learning a Text-Video Embedding by Watching Hundred Million Narrated Video Clips](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.03327/) (2019)
- [VGGFace2: A dataset for recognising faces across pose and age](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.08092/) (2017)
- [VoxCeleb2: Deep Speaker Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05622/) (2018)
- [A Convergence Theory for Deep Learning via Over-Parameterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.03962/) (2018)
- [VoxCeleb: a large-scale speaker identification dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.08612/) (2017)
- [Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08128/) (2016)
- [Gradient Descent Provably Optimizes Over-parameterized Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.02054/) (2018)
- [Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14808/) (2020)
- [Learning to Reconstruct 3D Human Pose and Shape via Model-fitting in the Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12828/) (2019)
- [Gradient Descent Finds Global Minima of Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.03804/) (2018)
- [How far are we from solving the 2D & 3D Face Alignment problem? (and a dataset of 230,000 3D facial landmarks)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.07332/) (2017)
- [Learning an Animatable Detailed 3D Face Model from In-The-Wild Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04012/) (2020)
- [One-Shot Free-View Neural Talking-Head Synthesis for Video Conferencing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.15126/) (2020)
- [End-to-End Human Pose and Mesh Reconstruction with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09760/) (2020)
- [HuMoR: 3D Human Motion Model for Robust Pose Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04668/) (2021)
- [Resolving 3D Human Pose Ambiguities with 3D Scene Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06963/) (2019)
- [3D Morphable Face Models -- Past, Present and Future](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01815/) (2019)
- [Generating 3D faces using Convolutional Mesh Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10267/) (2018)
- [Deep Video Portraits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.11714/) (2018)
- [Mesh Graphormer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00272/) (2021)
- [Capture, Learning, and Synthesis of 3D Speaking Styles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.03079/) (2019)
- [EMOCA: Emotion Driven Monocular Face Capture and Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11312/) (2022)
- [CelebV-HQ: A Large-Scale Video Facial Attributes Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12393/) (2022)
- [Total Capture: A 3D Deformation Model for Tracking Faces, Hands, and Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01615/) (2018)
- [Towards Fast, Accurate and Stable 3D Dense Face Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.09960/) (2020)
- [Neural Head Avatars from Monocular RGB Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01554/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Paint-it: Text-to-Texture Synthesis via Deep Convolutional Texture Map Optimization and Physically-Based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11360/) (2023)
- [LaughTalk: Expressive 3D Talking Head Generation with Laughter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00994/) (2023)
- [How to Move Your Dragon: Text-to-Motion Synthesis for Large-Vocabulary Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04257/) (2025)
- [Anatomically Constrained Implicit Face Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07538/) (2023)
- [FiCA: Feed-forward instant Gaussian Codec Avatars from a Single Portrait Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24232/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose NeuFace, a 3D face mesh pseudo annotation method on videos via neural re-parameterized optimization. Despite the huge progress in 3D face reconstruction methods, generating reliable 3D face labels for in-the-wild dynamic videos remains challenging. Using NeuFace optimization, we annotate the per-view/-frame accurate and consistent face meshes on large-scale face videos, called the NeuFace-dataset. We investigate how neural re-parameterization helps to reconstruct image-aligned facial details on 3D meshes via gradient analysis. By exploiting the naturalness and diversity of 3D faces in our dataset, we demonstrate the usefulness of our dataset for 3D face-related tasks: improving the reconstruction accuracy of an existing 3D face reconstruction model and learning 3D facial motion prior. Code and datasets will be available at https://neuface-dataset.github.io.