# GPHM: Gaussian Parametric Head Model for Monocular Head Avatar Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15070 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15070/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 63 of its 81 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 63)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [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)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [4D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08528/) (2023)
- [Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09713/) (2023)
- [pi-GAN: Periodic Implicit Generative Adversarial Networks for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00926/) (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)
- [StyleNeRF: A Style-based 3D-Aware Generator for High-resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08985/) (2021)
- [Real-time Photorealistic Dynamic Scene Representation and Rendering with 4D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10642/) (2023)
- [Dynamic Neural Radiance Fields for Monocular 4D Facial Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03065/) (2020)
- [Deep Marching Tetrahedra: a Hybrid Representation for High-Resolution 3D Shape Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.04276/) (2021)
- [AD-NeRF: Audio Driven Neural Radiance Fields for Talking Head Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.11078/) (2021)
- [StyleSDF: High-Resolution 3D-Consistent Image and Geometry Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.11427/) (2021)
- [Mixture of Volumetric Primitives for Efficient Neural Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01954/) (2021)
- [GaussianAvatars: Photorealistic Head Avatars with Rigged 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02069/) (2023)
- [I M Avatar: Implicit Morphable Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07471/) (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)
- [Neural Head Avatars from Monocular RGB Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01554/) (2021)
- [LivePortrait: Efficient Portrait Animation with Stitching and Retargeting Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.03168/) (2024)
- [NeRSemble: Multi-view Radiance Field Reconstruction of Human Heads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03027/) (2023)
- [GaussianAvatar: Towards Realistic Human Avatar Modeling from a Single Video via Animatable 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02134/) (2023)
- [PointAvatar: Deformable Point-based Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08377/) (2022)
- [VFHQ: A High-Quality Dataset and Benchmark for Video Face Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.03409/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [GAF: Gaussian Avatar Reconstruction from Monocular Videos via Multi-view Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10209/) (2024)
- [Synthetic Prior for Few-Shot Drivable Head Avatar Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06903/) (2025)
- [RMAvatar: Photorealistic Human Avatar Reconstruction from Monocular Video Based on Rectified Mesh-embedded Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.07104/) (2025)
- [FastGHA: Generalized Few-Shot 3D Gaussian Head Avatars with Real-Time Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.13837/) (2026)
- [GNM Head: A Generative aNthropometric Model of the human head](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.23687/) (2026)
- [AvatarBack: Back-Head Generation for Complete 3D Avatars from Front-View Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.20623/) (2025)
- [From Blurry to Believable: Enhancing Low-quality Talking Heads with 3D Generative Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06122/) (2026)
- [TimeWalker: Personalized Neural Space for Lifelong Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02421/) (2024)
- [GLVD: Guided Learned Vertex Descent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06046/) (2025)
- [Self-Learning Expression Deformations for Data-Efficient Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05912/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Creating high-fidelity 3D human head avatars is crucial for applications in VR/AR, digital human, and film production. Recent advances have leveraged morphable face models to generate animated head avatars from easily accessible data, representing varying identities and expressions within a low-dimensional parametric space. However, existing methods often struggle with modeling complex appearance details, e.g., hairstyles, and suffer from low rendering quality and efficiency. In this paper we introduce a novel approach, 3D Gaussian Parametric Head Model, which employs 3D Gaussians to accurately represent the complexities of the human head, allowing precise control over both identity and expression. The Gaussian model can handle intricate details, enabling realistic representations of varying appearances and complex expressions. Furthermore, we presents a well-designed training framework to ensure smooth convergence, providing a robust guarantee for learning the rich content. Our method achieves high-quality, photo-realistic rendering with real-time efficiency, making it a valuable contribution to the field of parametric head models. Finally, we apply the 3D Gaussian Parametric Head Model to monocular video or few-shot head avatar reconstruction tasks, which enables instant reconstruction of high-quality 3D head avatars even when input data is extremely limited, surpassing previous methods in terms of reconstruction quality and training speed.