# Taming Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Character Control

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.15121 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15121/

## Key facts

- Cited by 57 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 26 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Apr 2024.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Video generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/video-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [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)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07035/) (2018)
- [Human Motion Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14916/) (2022)
- [MotionDiffuse: Text-Driven Human Motion Generation with Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.15001/) (2022)
- [Executing your Commands via Motion Diffusion in Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04048/) (2022)
- [MotionGPT: Human Motion as a Foreign Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14795/) (2023)
- [PhysDiff: Physics-Guided Human Motion Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.02500/) (2022)
- [Human Motion Diffusion as a Generative Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01418/) (2023)
- [OmniControl: Control Any Joint at Any Time for Human Motion Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08580/) (2023)
- [Guided Motion Diffusion for Controllable Human Motion Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12577/) (2023)
- [MoFusion: A Framework for Denoising-Diffusion-based Motion Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04495/) (2022)
- [FLAME: Free-form Language-based Motion Synthesis & Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00349/) (2022)
- [Listen, Denoise, Action! Audio-Driven Motion Synthesis with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09707/) (2022)
- [Character Controllers Using Motion VAEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14274/) (2021)
- [DeepMimic: Example-Guided Deep Reinforcement Learning of Physics-Based Character Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02717/) (2018)
- [CALM: Conditional Adversarial Latent Models for Directable Virtual Characters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.02195/) (2023)
- [Fg-T2M: Fine-Grained Text-Driven Human Motion Generation via Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06284/) (2023)
- [Real-Time Style Modelling of Human Locomotion via Feature-Wise Transformations and Local Motion Phases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04439/) (2022)
- [Interactive Character Control with Auto-Regressive Motion Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00416/) (2023)
- [C·ASE: Learning Conditional Adversarial Skill Embeddings for Physics-based Characters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11351/) (2023)
- [MoGlow: Probabilistic and controllable motion synthesis using normalising flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06598/) (2019)
- [ControlVAE: Model-Based Learning of Generative Controllers for Physics-Based Characters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06063/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 57)

- [CLoSD: Closing the Loop between Simulation and Diffusion for multi-task character control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.03441/) (2024)
- [Dora: Sampling and Benchmarking for 3D Shape Variational Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17808/) (2024)
- [MotionStreamer: Streaming Motion Generation via Diffusion-based Autoregressive Model in Causal Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15451/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Diffusion for Text-Driven Human Motion Generation: Redundant Representations, Evaluation, and Masked Autoregression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16575/) (2024)
- [DartControl: A Diffusion-Based Autoregressive Motion Model for Real-Time Text-Driven Motion Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05260/) (2024)
- [Autonomous Character-Scene Interaction Synthesis from Text Instruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.03187/) (2024)
- [TokenHSI: Unified Synthesis of Physical Human-Scene Interactions through Task Tokenization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19901/) (2025)
- [Absolute Coordinates Make Motion Generation Easy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19377/) (2025)
- [Ready-to-React: Online Reaction Policy for Two-Character Interaction Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20370/) (2025)
- [AvatarGO: Zero-shot 4D Human-Object Interaction Generation and Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07164/) (2024)
- [Towards Immersive Human-X Interaction: A Real-Time Framework for Physically Plausible Motion Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02106/) (2025)
- [HOIDiNi: Human-Object Interaction through Diffusion Noise Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15625/) (2025)
- [Dance Like a Chicken: Low-Rank Stylization for Human Motion Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19557/) (2025)
- [PRIMAL: Physically Reactive and Interactive Motor Model for Avatar Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17544/) (2025)
- [TextOp: Real-time Interactive Text-Driven Humanoid Robot Motion Generation and Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07439/) (2026)
- [SCENIC: Scene-aware Semantic Navigation with Instruction-guided Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15664/) (2024)
- [CoDA: Coordinated Diffusion Noise Optimization for Whole-Body Manipulation of Articulated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21437/) (2025)
- [MOSPA: Human Motion Generation Driven by Spatial Audio](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11949/) (2025)
- [Motion Generation: A Survey of Generative Approaches and Benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05419/) (2025)
- [Hyper3D: Efficient 3D Representation via Hybrid Triplane and Octree Feature for Enhanced 3D Shape Variational Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10403/) (2025)
- [ARDY: Autoregressive Diffusion with Hybrid Representation for Interactive Human Motion Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.08741/) (2026)
- [Interact2Ar: Full-Body Human-Human Interaction Generation via Autoregressive Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19692/) (2025)
- [MotionBricks: Scalable Real-Time Motions with Modular Latent Generative Model and Smart Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24833/) (2026)
- [UniMoGen: Universal Motion Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21837/) (2025)
- [MotionVerse: A Unified Multimodal Framework for Motion Comprehension, Generation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23635/) (2025)
- [InterAgent: Physics-based Multi-agent Command Execution via Diffusion on Interaction Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07410/) (2025)
- [UniAct: Unified Motion Generation and Action Streaming for Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24321/) (2025)
- [ActionPlan: Future-Aware Streaming Motion Synthesis via Frame-Level Action Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13500/) (2026)
- [UMO: Unified In-Context Learning Unlocks Motion Foundation Model Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.15975/) (2026)
- [SimGenHOI: Physically Realistic Whole-Body Humanoid-Object Interaction via Generative Modeling and Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.14120/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a novel character control framework that effectively utilizes motion diffusion probabilistic models to generate high-quality and diverse character animations, responding in real-time to a variety of dynamic user-supplied control signals. At the heart of our method lies a transformer-based Conditional Autoregressive Motion Diffusion Model (CAMDM), which takes as input the character's historical motion and can generate a range of diverse potential future motions conditioned on high-level, coarse user control. To meet the demands for diversity, controllability, and computational efficiency required by a real-time controller, we incorporate several key algorithmic designs. These include separate condition tokenization, classifier-free guidance on past motion, and heuristic future trajectory extension, all designed to address the challenges associated with taming motion diffusion probabilistic models for character control. As a result, our work represents the first model that enables real-time generation of high-quality, diverse character animations based on user interactive control, supporting animating the character in multiple styles with a single unified model. We evaluate our method on a diverse set of locomotion skills, demonstrating the merits of our method over existing character controllers. Project page and source codes: https://aiganimation.github.io/CAMDM/