# GALA: Generating Animatable Layered Assets from a Single Scan

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12979 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12979/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 88 of its 101 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Jan 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 88)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09800/) (2022)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [Magic3D: High-Resolution Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10440/) (2022)
- [OpenPose: Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08008/) (2018)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [MVDream: Multi-view Diffusion for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16512/) (2023)
- [End-to-end Recovery of Human Shape and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06584/) (2017)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [Point-E: A System for Generating 3D Point Clouds from Complex Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08751/) (2022)
- [Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08128/) (2016)
- [Fantasia3D: Disentangling Geometry and Appearance for High-quality Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13873/) (2023)
- [LION: Latent Point Diffusion Models for 3D Shape Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06978/) (2022)
- [Neural Fields in Visual Computing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11426/) (2021)
- [PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00452/) (2020)
- [Zero-Shot Text-Guided Object Generation with Dream Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01455/) (2021)
- [Latent-NeRF for Shape-Guided Generation of 3D Shapes and Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.07600/) (2022)
- [Instruct-NeRF2NeRF: Editing 3D Scenes with Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12789/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [LayGA: Layered Gaussian Avatars for Animatable Clothing Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07319/) (2024)
- [GarmentDreamer: 3DGS Guided Garment Synthesis with Diverse Geometry and Texture Details](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12420/) (2024)
- [PERSE: Personalized 3D Generative Avatars from A Single Portrait](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.21206/) (2024)
- [SimAvatar: Simulation-Ready Avatars with Layered Hair and Clothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09545/) (2024)
- [PICA: Physics-Integrated Clothed Avatar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.05324/) (2024)
- [LUCAS: Layered Universal Codec Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19739/) (2025)
- [Target-Aware Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18950/) (2025)
- [HairCUP: Hair Compositional Universal Prior for 3D Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19481/) (2025)
- [StdGEN: Semantic-Decomposed 3D Character Generation from Single Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.05738/) (2024)
- [DreamBarbie: Text to Barbie-Style 3D Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09126/) (2024)
- [GGAvatar: Reconstructing Garment-Separated 3D Gaussian Splatting Avatars from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.09952/) (2024)
- [DeClotH: Decomposable 3D Cloth and Human Body Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19373/) (2025)
- [SVAD: From Single Image to 3D Avatar via Synthetic Data Generation with Video Diffusion and Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05475/) (2025)
- [DAMA: Disentangled Body-Anchored Gaussians for Controllable Multi-Layered Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21001/) (2026)
- [Durian: Dual Reference Image-Guided Portrait Animation with Attribute Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04434/) (2025)
- [LayerGS: Decomposition and Inpainting of Layered 3D Human Avatars via 2D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.05853/) (2026)
- [StdGEN++: A Comprehensive System for Semantic-Decomposed 3D Character Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07660/) (2026)
- [InverseDraping: Recovering Sewing Patterns from 3D Garment Surfaces via BoxMesh Bridging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02764/) (2026)
- [ReMu: Reconstructing Multi-layer 3D Clothed Human from Image Layers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01381/) (2025)
- [ARMARecon: An ARMA Convolutional Filter based Graph Neural Network for Neurodegenerative Dementias Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12067/) (2026)
- [AvatarMix: Identity-Preserving Cross-Avatar Composition for Outfit Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.03506/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present GALA, a framework that takes as input a single-layer clothed 3D human mesh and decomposes it into complete multi-layered 3D assets. The outputs can then be combined with other assets to create novel clothed human avatars with any pose. Existing reconstruction approaches often treat clothed humans as a single-layer of geometry and overlook the inherent compositionality of humans with hairstyles, clothing, and accessories, thereby limiting the utility of the meshes for downstream applications. Decomposing a single-layer mesh into separate layers is a challenging task because it requires the synthesis of plausible geometry and texture for the severely occluded regions. Moreover, even with successful decomposition, meshes are not normalized in terms of poses and body shapes, failing coherent composition with novel identities and poses. To address these challenges, we propose to leverage the general knowledge of a pretrained 2D diffusion model as geometry and appearance prior for humans and other assets. We first separate the input mesh using the 3D surface segmentation extracted from multi-view 2D segmentations. Then we synthesize the missing geometry of different layers in both posed and canonical spaces using a novel pose-guided Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) loss. Once we complete inpainting high-fidelity 3D geometry, we also apply the same SDS loss to its texture to obtain the complete appearance including the initially occluded regions. Through a series of decomposition steps, we obtain multiple layers of 3D assets in a shared canonical space normalized in terms of poses and human shapes, hence supporting effortless composition to novel identities and reanimation with novel poses. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for decomposition, canonicalization, and composition tasks compared to existing solutions.