# Holoported Characters: Real-time Free-viewpoint Rendering of Humans from Sparse RGB Cameras

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.07423 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07423/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Dec 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [Enhanced Deep Residual Networks for Single Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.02921/) (2017)
- [First Order Motion Model for Image Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.00196/) (2020)
- [IBRNet: Learning Multi-View Image-Based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.13090/) (2021)
- [Local Light Field Fusion: Practical View Synthesis with Prescriptive Sampling Guidelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.00889/) (2019)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [Non-Rigid Neural Radiance Fields: Reconstruction and Novel View Synthesis of a Dynamic Scene From Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.12247/) (2020)
- [Everybody Dance Now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07371/) (2018)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)
- [NeuMan: Neural Human Radiance Field from a Single Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12575/) (2022)
- [Neural Articulated Radiance Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03110/) (2021)
- [Robust Dynamic Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02239/) (2023)
- [Real-Time High-Resolution Background Matting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07810/) (2020)
- [TAVA: Template-free Animatable Volumetric Actors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08929/) (2022)
- [DeepCap: Monocular Human Performance Capture Using Weak Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08325/) (2020)
- [HumanRF: High-Fidelity Neural Radiance Fields for Humans in Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06356/) (2023)
- [H-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Rendering and Temporal Reconstruction of Humans in Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.13746/) (2021)
- [Editable Free-viewpoint Video Using a Layered Neural Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14786/) (2021)
- [ARAH: Animatable Volume Rendering of Articulated Human SDFs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.10036/) (2022)
- [Real-time Deep Dynamic Characters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01794/) (2021)
- [ASH: Animatable Gaussian Splats for Efficient and Photoreal Human Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05941/) (2023)
- [Textured Neural Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.08776/) (2019)
- [Human Performance Modeling and Rendering via Neural Animated Mesh](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.08468/) (2022)
- [Drivable Volumetric Avatars using Texel-Aligned Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09774/) (2022)
- [ANR: Articulated Neural Rendering for Virtual Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.12890/) (2020)
- [UV Volumes for Real-time Rendering of Editable Free-view Human Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14402/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Robust Dual Gaussian Splatting for Immersive Human-centric Volumetric Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08353/) (2024)
- [MetaCap: Meta-learning Priors from Multi-View Imagery for Sparse-view Human Performance Capture and Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18820/) (2024)
- [EgoAvatar: Egocentric View-Driven and Photorealistic Full-body Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01835/) (2024)
- [Real-time Free-view Human Rendering from Sparse-view RGB Videos using Double Unprojected Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13183/) (2024)
- [EVA: Expressive Virtual Avatars from Multi-view Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15385/) (2025)
- [EvolvingGS: High-Fidelity Streamable Volumetric Video via Evolving 3D Gaussian Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05162/) (2025)
- [UMA: Ultra-detailed Human Avatars via Multi-level Surface Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01802/) (2025)
- [Relightable Holoported Characters: Capturing and Relighting Dynamic Human Performance from Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00255/) (2025)
- [Splannequin: Freezing Monocular Mannequin-Challenge Footage with Dual-Detection Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05113/) (2025)
- [Hyper Diffusion Avatars: Dynamic Human Avatar Generation using Network Weight Space Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04145/) (2025)
- [Physically Plausible Human-Object Rendering from Sparse Views via 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09640/) (2025)
- [Step2Motion: Locomotion Reconstruction from Pressure Sensing Insoles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.22712/) (2025)
- [GenFusion: Feed-forward Human Performance Capture via Progressive Canonical Space Updates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28997/) (2026)
- [MUA: Mobile Ultra-detailed Animatable Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18583/) (2026)
- [EgoRelight: Egocentric Human Capture and Illumination Recovery for Relightable and Photoreal Avatar Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28401/) (2026)
- [SOMA: From Surface Observations to Muscle Anatomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.09246/) (2026)
- [AvatarDynamizer: From Static to Dynamic Human Avatars via Generative Dynamic Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19900/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present the first approach to render highly realistic free-viewpoint videos of a human actor in general apparel, from sparse multi-view recording to display, in real-time at an unprecedented 4K resolution. At inference, our method only requires four camera views of the moving actor and the respective 3D skeletal pose. It handles actors in wide clothing, and reproduces even fine-scale dynamic detail, e.g. clothing wrinkles, face expressions, and hand gestures. At training time, our learning-based approach expects dense multi-view video and a rigged static surface scan of the actor. Our method comprises three main stages. Stage 1 is a skeleton-driven neural approach for high-quality capture of the detailed dynamic mesh geometry. Stage 2 is a novel solution to create a view-dependent texture using four test-time camera views as input. Finally, stage 3 comprises a new image-based refinement network rendering the final 4K image given the output from the previous stages. Our approach establishes a new benchmark for real-time rendering resolution and quality using sparse input camera views, unlocking possibilities for immersive telepresence.