# Video Diffusion Models are Training-free Motion Interpreter and Controller

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14864 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14864/

## Key facts

- Cited by 61 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 45 of its 62 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 May 2024.

## Placed in

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

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [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)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03458/) (2022)
- [VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17982/) (2023)
- [AnimateDiff: Animate Your Personalized Text-to-Image Diffusion Models without Specific Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04725/) (2023)
- [MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05997/) (2021)
- [MasaCtrl: Tuning-Free Mutual Self-Attention Control for Consistent Image Synthesis and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08465/) (2023)
- [ModelScope Text-to-Video Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06571/) (2023)
- [MotionCtrl: A Unified and Flexible Motion Controller for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03641/) (2023)
- [VideoCrafter2: Overcoming Data Limitations for High-Quality Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09047/) (2024)
- [VideoCrafter1: Open Diffusion Models for High-Quality Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19512/) (2023)
- [CoTracker: It is Better to Track Together](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07635/) (2023)
- [VideoComposer: Compositional Video Synthesis with Motion Controllability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02018/) (2023)
- [CameraCtrl: Enabling Camera Control for Text-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02101/) (2024)
- [Emergent Correspondence from Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03881/) (2023)
- [TokenFlow: Consistent Diffusion Features for Consistent Video Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10373/) (2023)
- [Universal Guidance for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07121/) (2023)
- [LAVIE: High-Quality Video Generation with Cascaded Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15103/) (2023)
- [VideoFusion: Decomposed Diffusion Models for High-Quality Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08320/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Self-Guidance for Controllable Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00986/) (2023)
- [DragDiffusion: Harnessing Diffusion Models for Interactive Point-based Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14435/) (2023)
- [DragNUWA: Fine-grained Control in Video Generation by Integrating Text, Image, and Trajectory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08089/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 61)

- [VD3D: Taming Large Video Diffusion Transformers for 3D Camera Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12781/) (2024)
- [AC3D: Analyzing and Improving 3D Camera Control in Video Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18673/) (2024)
- [Follow-Your-Motion: Video Motion Transfer via Efficient Spatial-Temporal Decoupled Finetuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05207/) (2025)
- [3DTrajMaster: Mastering 3D Trajectory for Multi-Entity Motion in Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07759/) (2024)
- [SG-I2V: Self-Guided Trajectory Control in Image-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04989/) (2024)
- [StreetCrafter: Street View Synthesis with Controllable Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13188/) (2024)
- [WonderPlay: Dynamic 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image and Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18151/) (2025)
- [Lyra: Generative 3D Scene Reconstruction via Video Diffusion Model Self-Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19296/) (2025)
- [Video Motion Transfer with Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07776/) (2024)
- [Learning Video Generation for Robotic Manipulation with Collaborative Trajectory Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01943/) (2025)
- [Emergent Temporal Correspondences from Video Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17220/) (2025)
- [FastVMT: Eliminating Redundancy in Video Motion Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.05551/) (2026)
- [INSPATIO-WORLD: A Real-Time 4D World Simulator via Spatiotemporal Autoregressive Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07209/) (2026)
- [ObjCtrl-2.5D: Training-free Object Control with Camera Poses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07721/) (2024)
- [Taming Video Models for 3D and 4D Generation via Zero-Shot Camera Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.15130/) (2025)
- [From Image to Video: An Empirical Study of Diffusion Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07001/) (2025)
- [Decouple and Track: Benchmarking and Improving Video Diffusion Transformers for Motion Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17350/) (2025)
- [RoPECraft: Training-Free Motion Transfer with Trajectory-Guided RoPE Optimization on Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13344/) (2025)
- [Motion Modes: What Could Happen Next?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00148/) (2024)
- [AnyI2V: Animating Any Conditional Image with Motion Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02857/) (2025)
- [Bokeh Diffusion: Defocus Blur Control in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08434/) (2025)
- [T-GVC: Trajectory-Guided Generative Video Coding at Ultra-Low Bitrates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07633/) (2025)
- [FreePCA: Integrating Consistency Information across Long-short Frames in Training-free Long Video Generation via Principal Component Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01172/) (2025)
- [ByTheWay: Boost Your Text-to-Video Generation Model to Higher Quality in a Training-free Way](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06241/) (2024)
- [CtrlAttack: A Unified Attack on World-Model Control in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13435/) (2026)
- [Reenact Anything: Semantic Video Motion Transfer Using Motion-Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00458/) (2024)
- [PostCam: Camera-Controllable Novel-View Video Generation with Query-Shared Cross-Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17185/) (2025)
- [MatchDiffusion: Training-free Generation of Match-cuts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18677/) (2024)
- [TempoControl: Temporal Attention Guidance for Text-to-Video Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02226/) (2025)
- [ActionParty: Multi-Subject Action Binding in Generative Video Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02330/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Video generation primarily aims to model authentic and customized motion across frames, making understanding and controlling the motion a crucial topic. Most diffusion-based studies on video motion focus on motion customization with training-based paradigms, which, however, demands substantial training resources and necessitates retraining for diverse models. Crucially, these approaches do not explore how video diffusion models encode cross-frame motion information in their features, lacking interpretability and transparency in their effectiveness. To answer this question, this paper introduces a novel perspective to understand, localize, and manipulate motion-aware features in video diffusion models. Through analysis using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), our work discloses that robust motion-aware feature already exists in video diffusion models. We present a new MOtion FeaTure (MOFT) by eliminating content correlation information and filtering motion channels. MOFT provides a distinct set of benefits, including the ability to encode comprehensive motion information with clear interpretability, extraction without the need for training, and generalizability across diverse architectures. Leveraging MOFT, we propose a novel training-free video motion control framework. Our method demonstrates competitive performance in generating natural and faithful motion, providing architecture-agnostic insights and applicability in a variety of downstream tasks.