# GeneAvatar: Generic Expression-Aware Volumetric Head Avatar Editing from a Single Image

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02152 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02152/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 60 of its 74 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 60)

- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09800/) (2022)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [TensoRF: Tensorial Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09517/) (2022)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Alias-Free Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12423/) (2021)
- [StyleCLIP: Text-Driven Manipulation of StyleGAN Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.17249/) (2021)
- [Direct Voxel Grid Optimization: Super-fast Convergence for Radiance Fields Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11215/) (2021)
- [Neural Sparse Voxel Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11571/) (2020)
- [Interpreting the Latent Space of GANs for Semantic Face Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10786/) (2019)
- [GANSpace: Discovering Interpretable GAN Controls](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02546/) (2020)
- [NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12130/) (2021)
- [Zero-shot Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03027/) (2023)
- [Instruct-NeRF2NeRF: Editing 3D Scenes with Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12789/) (2023)
- [Learning an Animatable Detailed 3D Face Model from In-The-Wild Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04012/) (2020)
- [Dynamic Neural Radiance Fields for Monocular 4D Facial Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03065/) (2020)
- [Pivotal Tuning for Latent-based Editing of Real Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05744/) (2021)
- [In-Domain GAN Inversion for Real Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00049/) (2020)
- [GAN Inversion: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05278/) (2021)
- [Composer: Creative and Controllable Image Synthesis with Composable Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09778/) (2023)
- [DragDiffusion: Harnessing Diffusion Models for Interactive Point-based Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14435/) (2023)
- [SEAN: Image Synthesis with Semantic Region-Adaptive Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.12861/) (2019)
- [I M Avatar: Implicit Morphable Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07471/) (2021)
- [Learning Object-Compositional Neural Radiance Field for Editable Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01847/) (2021)
- [Drag Your GAN: Interactive Point-based Manipulation on the Generative Image Manifold](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10973/) (2023)
- [DragonDiffusion: Enabling Drag-style Manipulation on Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.02421/) (2023)
- [PointAvatar: Deformable Point-based Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08377/) (2022)
- [Towards Metrical Reconstruction of Human Faces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06607/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [FATE: Full-head Gaussian Avatar with Textural Editing from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15604/) (2024)
- [Free360: Layered Gaussian Splatting for Unbounded 360-Degree View Synthesis from Extremely Sparse and Unposed Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.24382/) (2025)
- [Gaussian Deja-vu: Creating Controllable 3D Gaussian Head-Avatars with Enhanced Generalization and Personalization Abilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16147/) (2024)
- [AtlasGS: Atlanta-world Guided Surface Reconstruction with Implicit Structured Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25129/) (2025)
- [AvatarMakeup: Realistic Makeup Transfer for 3D Animatable Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02419/) (2025)
- [GeoAvatar: Adaptive Geometrical Gaussian Splatting for 3D Head Avatar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.18155/) (2025)
- [FFHQ-Makeup: Paired Synthetic Makeup Dataset with Facial Consistency Across Multiple Styles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03241/) (2025)
- [Follow Your Motion: A Generic Temporal Consistency Portrait Editing Framework with Trajectory Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22225/) (2025)
- [Supervised makeup transfer with a curated dataset: Decoupling identity and makeup features for enhanced transformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00729/) (2026)
- [Pomo3D: 3D-Aware Portrait Accessorizing and More](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14430/) (2024)
- [LiftAvatar: Kinematic-Space Completion for Expression-Controlled 3D Gaussian Avatar Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02129/) (2026)
- [NeuMesh++: Towards Versatile and Efficient Volumetric Editing with Disentangled Neural Mesh-based Implicit Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.19316/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recently, we have witnessed the explosive growth of various volumetric representations in modeling animatable head avatars. However, due to the diversity of frameworks, there is no practical method to support high-level applications like 3D head avatar editing across different representations. In this paper, we propose a generic avatar editing approach that can be universally applied to various 3DMM driving volumetric head avatars. To achieve this goal, we design a novel expression-aware modification generative model, which enables lift 2D editing from a single image to a consistent 3D modification field. To ensure the effectiveness of the generative modification process, we develop several techniques, including an expression-dependent modification distillation scheme to draw knowledge from the large-scale head avatar model and 2D facial texture editing tools, implicit latent space guidance to enhance model convergence, and a segmentation-based loss reweight strategy for fine-grained texture inversion. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method delivers high-quality and consistent results across multiple expression and viewpoints. Project page: https://zju3dv.github.io/geneavatar/