# Expressive Gaussian Human Avatars from Monocular RGB Video

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.03204 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.03204/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 43 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 43)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [Effective Whole-body Pose Estimation with Two-stages Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15880/) (2023)
- [Reconstructing Hands in 3D with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05251/) (2023)
- [Mixture of Volumetric Primitives for Efficient Neural Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01954/) (2021)
- [NeuMan: Neural Human Radiance Field from a Single Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12575/) (2022)
- [Total Capture: A 3D Deformation Model for Tracking Faces, Hands, and Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01615/) (2018)
- [A-NeRF: Articulated Neural Radiance Fields for Learning Human Shape, Appearance, and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.06199/) (2021)
- [SNARF: Differentiable Forward Skinning for Animating Non-Rigid Neural Implicit Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03953/) (2021)
- [3DGS-Avatar: Animatable Avatars via Deformable 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09228/) (2023)
- [GaussianAvatar: Towards Realistic Human Avatar Modeling from a Single Video via Animatable 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02134/) (2023)
- [SplattingAvatar: Realistic Real-Time Human Avatars with Mesh-Embedded Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05087/) (2024)
- [H-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Rendering and Temporal Reconstruction of Humans in Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.13746/) (2021)
- [SMPLer-X: Scaling Up Expressive Human Pose and Shape Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17448/) (2023)
- [HUGS: Human Gaussian Splats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17910/) (2023)
- [StyleGAN-Human: A Data-Centric Odyssey of Human Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11823/) (2022)
- [ARAH: Animatable Volume Rendering of Articulated Human SDFs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.10036/) (2022)
- [InstantAvatar: Learning Avatars from Monocular Video in 60 Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10550/) (2022)
- [GART: Gaussian Articulated Template Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16099/) (2023)
- [Drivable 3D Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08581/) (2023)
- [HumanNeRF: Efficiently Generated Human Radiance Field from Sparse Inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02789/) (2021)
- [MonoHuman: Animatable Human Neural Field from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02001/) (2023)
- [AvatarReX: Real-time Expressive Full-body Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.04789/) (2023)
- [Learning Neural Volumetric Representations of Dynamic Humans in Minutes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12237/) (2023)
- [HiFi4G: High-Fidelity Human Performance Rendering via Compact Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03461/) (2023)
- [X-Avatar: Expressive Human Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04805/) (2023)
- [Drivable Volumetric Avatars using Texel-Aligned Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09774/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [HumanDreamer-X: Photorealistic Single-image Human Avatars Reconstruction via Gaussian Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03536/) (2025)
- [PERSONA: Personalized Whole-Body 3D Avatar with Pose-Driven Deformations from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09973/) (2025)
- [Real-time High-fidelity Gaussian Human Avatars with Position-based Interpolation of Spatially Distributed MLPs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12909/) (2025)
- [HumanRAM: Feed-forward Human Reconstruction and Animation Model using Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03118/) (2025)
- [SignSplat: Rendering Sign Language via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02108/) (2025)
- [DynamicVerse: A Physically-Aware Multimodal Framework for 4D World Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03000/) (2025)
- [Using Sign Language Production as Data Augmentation to enhance Sign Language Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09643/) (2025)
- [Generative Modeling of Shape-Dependent Self-Contact Human Poses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23393/) (2025)
- [Relightable and Dynamic Gaussian Avatar Reconstruction from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09335/) (2025)
- [High-Fidelity Mobile Avatars with Pruned Local Blendshapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01854/) (2026)
- [PS-GS: Gaussian Splatting for Multi-View Photometric Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.18231/) (2025)
- [DexAvatar: 3D Sign Language Reconstruction with Hand and Body Pose Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.21054/) (2025)
- [THOM: Generating Physically Plausible Hand-Object Meshes From Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02736/) (2026)
- [PIAvatar: Physically Interactive Avatars via Deformation Gradient Decoupling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.21162/) (2026)
- [4DAnyone: Create Anyone in 4D from a Casual Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20335/) (2026)
- [Diverse Signer Avatars with Manual and Non-Manual Feature Modelling for Sign Language Production](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.15988/) (2025)
- [DevilSight: Augmenting Monocular Human Avatar Reconstruction through a Virtual Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.00403/) (2025)
- [Generator-Refiner-Examiner: A Tri-Module Data Augmentation Framework for 3D Human Avatar Learning from Monocular Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23555/) (2026)
- [Hand-4DGS: Feed-Forward 3D Gaussian Splatting for 4D Hand Reconstruction from Egocentric Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.19156/) (2026)
- [Multi-View Face and Gesture Animation with Dynamic Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.04722/) (2026)
- [PHOSA: Photorealistic 3D Sign Avatar Modeling and Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29292/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Nuanced expressiveness, particularly through fine-grained hand and facial expressions, is pivotal for enhancing the realism and vitality of digital human representations. In this work, we focus on investigating the expressiveness of human avatars when learned from monocular RGB video; a setting that introduces new challenges in capturing and animating fine-grained details. To this end, we introduce EVA, a drivable human model that meticulously sculpts fine details based on 3D Gaussians and SMPL-X, an expressive parametric human model. Focused on enhancing expressiveness, our work makes three key contributions. First, we highlight the critical importance of aligning the SMPL-X model with RGB frames for effective avatar learning. Recognizing the limitations of current SMPL-X prediction methods for in-the-wild videos, we introduce a plug-and-play module that significantly ameliorates misalignment issues. Second, we propose a context-aware adaptive density control strategy, which is adaptively adjusting the gradient thresholds to accommodate the varied granularity across body parts. Last but not least, we develop a feedback mechanism that predicts per-pixel confidence to better guide the learning of 3D Gaussians. Extensive experiments on two benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of our framework both quantitatively and qualitatively, especially on the fine-grained hand and facial details. See the project website at urlhttps://evahuman.github.io