# AWOL: Analysis WithOut synthesis using Language

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03042 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03042/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 57 of its 73 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 57)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Density estimation using Real NVP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.08803/) (2016)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [Magic3D: High-Resolution Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10440/) (2022)
- [ProlificDreamer: High-Fidelity and Diverse Text-to-3D Generation with Variational Score Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16213/) (2023)
- [Human Motion Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14916/) (2022)
- [MVDream: Multi-view Diffusion for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16512/) (2023)
- [Objaverse-XL: A Universe of 10M+ 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05663/) (2023)
- [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)
- [Score Jacobian Chaining: Lifting Pretrained 2D Diffusion Models for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00774/) (2022)
- [Zero123++: a Single Image to Consistent Multi-view Diffusion Base Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15110/) (2023)
- [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)
- [Humans in 4D: Reconstructing and Tracking Humans with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20091/) (2023)
- [PARE: Part Attention Regressor for 3D Human Body Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08527/) (2021)
- [3D Menagerie: Modeling the 3D shape and pose of animals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07700/) (2016)
- [SDFusion: Multimodal 3D Shape Completion, Reconstruction, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04493/) (2022)
- [CLIP-Forge: Towards Zero-Shot Text-to-Shape Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.02624/) (2021)
- [Monocular, One-stage, Regression of Multiple 3D People](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.12272/) (2020)
- [Dream3D: Zero-Shot Text-to-3D Synthesis Using 3D Shape Prior and Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14704/) (2022)
- [Collaborative Regression of Expressive Bodies using Moderation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05301/) (2021)
- [SPEC: Seeing People in the Wild with an Estimated Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.00620/) (2021)

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

- [Generative Zoo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.08101/) (2024)
- [DI-PCG: Diffusion-based Efficient Inverse Procedural Content Generation for High-quality 3D Asset Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15200/) (2024)
- [AniMer+: Unified Pose and Shape Estimation Across Mammalia and Aves via Family-Aware Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00298/) (2025)
- [NeuralFur: Animal Fur Reconstruction From Multi-View Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12481/) (2026)
- [Towards Multi-Modal Animal Pose Estimation: A Survey and In-Depth Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09312/) (2024)
- [Pose Splatter: A 3D Gaussian Splatting Model for Quantifying Animal Pose and Appearance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18342/) (2025)
- [4DEquine: Disentangling Motion and Appearance for 4D Equine Reconstruction from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10125/) (2026)
- [SAM 3D Animal: Promptable Animal 3D Reconstruction from Images in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07604/) (2026)
- [MoReMouse: Monocular Reconstruction of Laboratory Mouse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04258/) (2025)
- [PRIMA: Boosting Animal Mesh Recovery with Biological Priors and Test-Time Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.02366/) (2026)
- [AnimalLift: Reconstructing Animatable 3D Animals from a Single Image by Learning Canonical Shape, Texture, and Fur Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.09513/) (2026)
- [ORMA: Optimization-based Monocular 4D Reconstruction of Articulated Animals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37986/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Many classical parametric 3D shape models exist, but creating novel shapes with such models requires expert knowledge of their parameters. For example, imagine creating a specific type of tree using procedural graphics or a new kind of animal from a statistical shape model. Our key idea is to leverage language to control such existing models to produce novel shapes. This involves learning a mapping between the latent space of a vision-language model and the parameter space of the 3D model, which we do using a small set of shape and text pairs. Our hypothesis is that mapping from language to parameters allows us to generate parameters for objects that were never seen during training. If the mapping between language and parameters is sufficiently smooth, then interpolation or generalization in language should translate appropriately into novel 3D shapes. We test our approach with two very different types of parametric shape models (quadrupeds and arboreal trees). We use a learned statistical shape model of quadrupeds and show that we can use text to generate new animals not present during training. In particular, we demonstrate state-of-the-art shape estimation of 3D dogs. This work also constitutes the first language-driven method for generating 3D trees. Finally, embedding images in the CLIP latent space enables us to generate animals and trees directly from images.