# SphereHead: Stable 3D Full-head Synthesis with Spherical Tri-plane Representation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05680 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05680/

## Key facts

- Cited by 30 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 42 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.7766/) (2014)
- [Conditional Generative Adversarial Nets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.1784/) (2014)
- [Rethinking Atrous Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.05587/) (2017)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Nerfies: Deformable Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12948/) (2020)
- [Generative Adversarial Text to Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.05396/) (2016)
- [pi-GAN: Periodic Implicit Generative Adversarial Networks for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00926/) (2020)
- [GRAF: Generative Radiance Fields for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02442/) (2020)
- [How far are we from solving the 2D & 3D Face Alignment problem? (and a dataset of 230,000 3D facial landmarks)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.07332/) (2017)
- [Accurate 3D Face Reconstruction with Weakly-Supervised Learning: From Single Image to Image Set](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08527/) (2019)
- [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)
- [AD-NeRF: Audio Driven Neural Radiance Fields for Talking Head Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.11078/) (2021)
- [BiSeNet V2: Bilateral Network with Guided Aggregation for Real-time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02147/) (2020)
- [StyleSDF: High-Resolution 3D-Consistent Image and Geometry Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.11427/) (2021)
- [HeadNeRF: A Real-time NeRF-based Parametric Head Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05637/) (2021)
- [GRAM: Generative Radiance Manifolds for 3D-Aware Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08867/) (2021)
- [Deep Generative Image Models using a Laplacian Pyramid of Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.05751/) (2015)
- [BlockGAN: Learning 3D Object-aware Scene Representations from Unlabelled Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.08988/) (2020)
- [3D Shape Induction from 2D Views of Multiple Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.05872/) (2016)
- [FENeRF: Face Editing in Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.15490/) (2021)
- [i3DMM: Deep Implicit 3D Morphable Model of Human Heads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.14143/) (2020)
- [Towards Unsupervised Learning of Generative Models for 3D Controllable Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05237/) (2019)
- [MoFaNeRF: Morphable Facial Neural Radiance Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02308/) (2021)
- [PanoHead: Geometry-Aware 3D Full-Head Synthesis in 360circ](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13071/) (2023)
- [GIRAFFE HD: A High-Resolution 3D-aware Generative Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14954/) (2022)
- [Lifting 2D StyleGAN for 3D-Aware Face Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13126/) (2020)
- [ImFace: A Nonlinear 3D Morphable Face Model with Implicit Neural Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14510/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 30)

- [GAF: Gaussian Avatar Reconstruction from Monocular Videos via Multi-view Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10209/) (2024)
- [FATE: Full-head Gaussian Avatar with Textural Editing from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15604/) (2024)
- [Pippo: High-Resolution Multi-View Humans from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07785/) (2025)
- [Arc2Avatar: Generating Expressive 3D Avatars from a Single Image via ID Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05379/) (2025)
- [DiffPortrait360: Consistent Portrait Diffusion for 360 View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15667/) (2025)
- [SOAP: Style-Omniscient Animatable Portraits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05022/) (2025)
- [3DGH: 3D Head Generation with Composable Hair and Face](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20875/) (2025)
- [SynMotion: Semantic-Visual Adaptation for Motion Customized Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23690/) (2025)
- [PanoLAM: Large Avatar Model for Gaussian Full-Head Synthesis from One-shot Unposed Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07552/) (2025)
- [HyPlaneHead: Rethinking Tri-plane-like Representations in Full-Head Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16748/) (2025)
- [UIKA: Fast Universal Head Avatar from Pose-Free Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07603/) (2026)
- [Controlling Avatar Diffusion with Learnable Gaussian Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15809/) (2025)
- [SpinMeRound: Consistent Multi-View Identity Generation Using Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10716/) (2025)
- [Bringing Your Portrait to 3D Presence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22553/) (2025)
- [AGORA: Adversarial Generation Of Real-time Animatable 3D Gaussian Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.06438/) (2025)
- [Condition Matters in Full-head 3D GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07198/) (2026)
- [Any3DAvatar: Fast and High-Quality Full-Head 3D Avatar Reconstruction from Single Portrait Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13856/) (2026)
- [Large-Scale High-Quality 3D Gaussian Head Reconstruction from Multi-View Captures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.04035/) (2026)
- [Integrating HCI Datasets in Project-Based Machine Learning Courses: A College-Level Review and Case Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03472/) (2024)
- [Exploring Disentangled and Controllable Human Image Synthesis: From End-to-End to Stage-by-Stage](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19486/) (2025)
- [TurboPortrait3D: Single-step diffusion-based fast portrait novel-view synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23929/) (2025)
- [StyleFusion360: View-Consistent Head Stylization via Adaptive Style Modulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22411/) (2025)
- [STARCaster: Spatio-Temporal AutoRegressive Video Diffusion for Identity- and View-Aware Talking Portraits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.13247/) (2025)
- [One-Shot Feed-Forward 360circ Animatable Avatar via Inpainted UV-Space Gaussian Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12770/) (2026)
- [OMEGA-Avatar: One-shot Modeling of 360deg Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11693/) (2026)
- [Giving Faces Their Feelings Back: Explicit Emotion Control for Feedforward Single-Image 3D Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.14541/) (2026)
- [Splatshot: 3D Face Avatar Generation from a Single Unconstrained Photo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.01493/) (2026)
- [Sculpting NeRF Geometry: Human-Preference Fine-Tuning of a 3D-Aware Face GAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27305/) (2026)
- [GeoFace: Consistent Multi-View Face Generation with Geometry-Constrained Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27659/) (2026)
- [Source-Face Authenticity Detection for 3D Gaussian Heads Reconstructed from a Single Portrait: A Benchmark and Dedicated Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.23984/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

While recent advances in 3D-aware Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have aided the development of near-frontal view human face synthesis, the challenge of comprehensively synthesizing a full 3D head viewable from all angles still persists. Although PanoHead proves the possibilities of using a large-scale dataset with images of both frontal and back views for full-head synthesis, it often causes artifacts for back views. Based on our in-depth analysis, we found the reasons are mainly twofold. First, from network architecture perspective, we found each plane in the utilized tri-plane/tri-grid representation space tends to confuse the features from both sides, causing "mirroring" artifacts (e.g., the glasses appear in the back). Second, from data supervision aspect, we found that existing discriminator training in 3D GANs mainly focuses on the quality of the rendered image itself, and does not care much about its plausibility with the perspective from which it was rendered. This makes it possible to generate "face" in non-frontal views, due to its easiness to fool the discriminator. In response, we propose SphereHead, a novel tri-plane representation in the spherical coordinate system that fits the human head's geometric characteristics and efficiently mitigates many of the generated artifacts. We further introduce a view-image consistency loss for the discriminator to emphasize the correspondence of the camera parameters and the images. The combination of these efforts results in visually superior outcomes with significantly fewer artifacts. Our code and dataset are publicly available at https://lhyfst.github.io/spherehead.