mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

GaussianAvatars: Photorealistic Head Avatars with Rigged 3D Gaussians

arXiv 2312.02069 ↗First posted 4 Dec 2023cs.CVcited by 256

Not on the map. Why?

Cited by 22 in Diffusion models, but placed by its own abstract, which didn’t fit.

Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce GaussianAvatars, a new method to create photorealistic head avatars that are fully controllable in terms of expression, pose, and viewpoint. The core idea is a dynamic 3D representation based on 3D Gaussian splats that are rigged to a parametric morphable face model. This combination facilitates photorealistic rendering while allowing for precise animation control via the underlying parametric model, e.g., through expression transfer from a driving sequence or by manually changing the morphable model parameters. We parameterize each splat by a local coordinate frame of a triangle and optimize for explicit displacement offset to obtain a more accurate geometric representation. During avatar reconstruction, we jointly optimize for the morphable model parameters and Gaussian splat parameters in an end-to-end fashion. We demonstrate the animation capabilities of our photorealistic avatar in several challenging scenarios. For instance, we show reenactments from a driving video, where our method outperforms existing works by a significant margin.

Key facts. Cited by 256 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 43 of its 60 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Dec 2023.

Builds on

43 of 60 references.

References · 43

  1. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
  2. 20233D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Renderingcited by 6,141
  3. 2022Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encodingcited by 3,698
  4. 2021Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 1,957
  5. 2020pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Imagescited by 1,574
  6. 2020D-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Dynamic Scenescited by 1,459
  7. 2022TensoRF: Tensorial Radiance Fieldscited by 1,275
  8. 2020Nerfies: Deformable Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 1,194
  9. 2021Direct Voxel Grid Optimization: Super-fast Convergence for Radiance Fields Reconstructioncited by 961
  10. 2023K-Planes: Explicit Radiance Fields in Space, Time, and Appearancecited by 742
  11. 2023Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesiscited by 731
  12. 2020Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videoscited by 631
31 more
  1. 2023HexPlane: A Fast Representation for Dynamic Scenescited by 582
  2. 2022Point-NeRF: Point-based Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 503
  3. 2020Dynamic Neural Radiance Fields for Monocular 4D Facial Avatar Reconstructioncited by 465
  4. 2020Modular Primitives for High-Performance Differentiable Renderingcited by 439
  5. 2021Dynamic View Synthesis from Dynamic Monocular Videocited by 420
  6. 2020Space-time Neural Irradiance Fields for Free-Viewpoint Videocited by 414
  7. 2021Animatable Neural Radiance Fields for Modeling Dynamic Human Bodiescited by 361
  8. 2018Everybody Dance Nowcited by 313
  9. 2021Mixture of Volumetric Primitives for Efficient Neural Renderingcited by 277
  10. 2018Deep Video Portraitscited by 265
  11. 2021I M Avatar: Implicit Morphable Head Avatars from Videoscited by 230
  12. 2021HeadNeRF: A Real-time NeRF-based Parametric Head Modelcited by 228
  13. 2021Neural Head Avatars from Monocular RGB Videoscited by 212
  14. 2023NeRSemble: Multi-view Radiance Field Reconstruction of Human Headscited by 190
  15. 2022PointAvatar: Deformable Point-based Head Avatars from Videoscited by 183
  16. 2023HyperReel: High-Fidelity 6-DoF Video with Ray-Conditioned Samplingcited by 173
  17. 2020Real-Time High-Resolution Background Mattingcited by 172
  18. 2023HumanRF: High-Fidelity Neural Radiance Fields for Humans in Motioncited by 161
  19. 2022Instant Volumetric Head Avatarscited by 157
  20. 2023HUGS: Human Gaussian Splatscited by 154
  21. 2022Reconstructing Personalized Semantic Facial NeRF Models From Monocular Videocited by 128
  22. 2023GART: Gaussian Articulated Template Modelscited by 121
  23. 2023Drivable 3D Gaussian Avatarscited by 120
  24. 2022AvatarMAV: Fast 3D Head Avatar Reconstruction Using Motion-Aware Neural Voxelscited by 73
  25. 2023LatentAvatar: Learning Latent Expression Code for Expressive Neural Head Avatarcited by 50
  26. 2023STAR Loss: Reducing Semantic Ambiguity in Facial Landmark Detectioncited by 41
  27. 2022Neural Strands: Learning Hair Geometry and Appearance from Multi-View Imagescited by 39
  28. 2023SplatArmor: Articulated Gaussian splatting for animatable humans from monocular RGB videoscited by 35
  29. 2022NeuWigs: A Neural Dynamic Model for Volumetric Hair Capture and Animationcited by 30
  30. 2023Animatable and Relightable Gaussians for High-fidelity Human Avatar Modelingcited by 27
  31. 2023Animatable 3D Gaussians for High-fidelity Synthesis of Human Motionscited by 15

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 4; 2024: 84; 2025: 79; 2026: 89.

256 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 20242D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fieldscited by 1,061
  2. 2024GRM: Large Gaussian Reconstruction Model for Efficient 3D Reconstruction and Generationcited by 298
  3. 2024Octree-GS: Towards Consistent Real-time Rendering with LOD-Structured 3D Gaussianscited by 225
  4. 2024A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 221
  5. 2024Mini-Splatting: Representing Scenes with a Constrained Number of Gaussianscited by 208
  6. 2024Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 130
  7. 2024RadSplat: Radiance Field-Informed Gaussian Splatting for Robust Real-Time Rendering with 900+ FPScited by 110
  8. 20243D Gaussian as a New Era: A Surveycited by 102
  9. 20243D Gaussian Splatting: Survey, Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunitiescited by 77
  10. 2024GaMeS: Mesh-Based Adapting and Modification of Gaussian Splattingcited by 69
  11. 2023HeadGaS: Real-Time Animatable Head Avatars via 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 60
  12. 2024TalkingGaussian: Structure-Persistent 3D Talking Head Synthesis via Gaussian Splattingcited by 60
38 more
  1. 2024SplatFields: Neural Gaussian Splats for Sparse 3D and 4D Reconstructioncited by 52
  2. 2024CAP4D: Creating Animatable 4D Portrait Avatars with Morphable Multi-View Diffusion Modelscited by 52
  3. 2024GGHead: Fast and Generalizable 3D Gaussian Headscited by 51
  4. 2023SWinGS: Sliding Windows for Dynamic 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 46
  5. 2024NPGA: Neural Parametric Gaussian Avatarscited by 46
  6. 2024Generative Gaussian Splatting for Unbounded 3D City Generationcited by 43
  7. 2025LAM: Large Avatar Model for One-shot Animatable Gaussian Headcited by 43
  8. 2024Gaussian Splatting: 3D Reconstruction and Novel View Synthesis, a Reviewcited by 40
  9. 2024MeGA: Hybrid Mesh-Gaussian Head Avatar for High-Fidelity Rendering and Head Editingcited by 37
  10. 2024GAF: Gaussian Avatar Reconstruction from Monocular Videos via Multi-view Diffusioncited by 36
  11. 2023HHAvatar: Gaussian Head Avatar with Dynamic Hairscited by 35
  12. 2024Human Hair Reconstruction with Strand-Aligned 3D Gaussianscited by 35
  13. 2024Gaussian Splashing: Unified Particles for Versatile Motion Synthesis and Renderingcited by 34
  14. 2024AdR-Gaussian: Accelerating Gaussian Splatting with Adaptive Radiuscited by 34
  15. 2024HeadStudio: Text to Animatable Head Avatars with 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 33
  16. 2024GaussianHeads: End-to-End Learning of Drivable Gaussian Head Avatars from Coarse-to-fine Representationscited by 31
  17. 2024HAHA: Highly Articulated Gaussian Human Avatars with Textured Mesh Priorcited by 30
  18. 2024Robust Dual Gaussian Splatting for Immersive Human-centric Volumetric Videoscited by 30
  19. 2024LM-Gaussian: Boost Sparse-view 3D Gaussian Splatting with Large Model Priorscited by 25
  20. 2024Gaussian Garments: Reconstructing Simulation-Ready Clothing with Photorealistic Appearance from Multi-View Videocited by 25
  21. 2024QUEEN: QUantized Efficient ENcoding of Dynamic Gaussians for Streaming Free-viewpoint Videoscited by 25
  22. 2024GVA: Reconstructing Vivid 3D Gaussian Avatars from Monocular Videoscited by 22
  23. 2025GUAVA: Generalizable Upper Body 3D Gaussian Avatarcited by 22
  24. 2024Gaussian Eigen Models for Human Headscited by 21
  25. 2024TextToon: Real-Time Text Toonify Head Avatar from Single Videocited by 21
  26. 2024VOODOO XP: Expressive One-Shot Head Reenactment for VR Telepresencecited by 19
  27. 2024MeshGS: Adaptive Mesh-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for High-Quality Renderingcited by 19
  28. 2025A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Applications: Segmentation, Editing, and Generationcited by 19
  29. 2024D-MiSo: Editing Dynamic 3D Scenes using Multi-Gaussians Soupcited by 18
  30. 2024PSAvatar: A Point-based Shape Model for Real-Time Head Avatar Animation with 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 17
  31. 2024GaussianTalker: Real-Time High-Fidelity Talking Head Synthesis with Audio-Driven 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 17
  32. 2024iHuman: Instant Animatable Digital Humans From Monocular Videoscited by 17
  33. 2024Advancing Extended Reality with 3D Gaussian Splatting: Innovations and Prospectscited by 17
  34. 2025MVP4D: Multi-View Portrait Video Diffusion for Animatable 4D Avatarscited by 17
  35. 2024Tri2-plane: Thinking Head Avatar via Feature Pyramidcited by 16
  36. 2024Gaussian Splatting in Stylecited by 16
  37. 2024Learn2Talk: 3D Talking Face Learns from 2D Talking Facecited by 16
  38. 2025Arc2Avatar: Generating Expressive 3D Avatars from a Single Image via ID Guidancecited by 16

50 most cited of 256 All 256 (JSON)