# Surfel-based Gaussian Inverse Rendering for Fast and Relightable Dynamic Human Reconstruction from Monocular Video

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15212 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15212/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 85 of its 127 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 85)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [TensoRF: Tensorial Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09517/) (2022)
- [AMASS: Archive of Motion Capture as Surface Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03278/) (2019)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Open3D: A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.09847/) (2018)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [NeRV: Neural Reflectance and Visibility Fields for Relighting and View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03927/) (2020)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [Deep Marching Tetrahedra: a Hybrid Representation for High-Resolution 3D Shape Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.04276/) (2021)
- [NeRD: Neural Reflectance Decomposition from Image Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03918/) (2020)
- [Extracting Triangular 3D Models, Materials, and Lighting From Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12503/) (2021)
- [Animatable Neural Radiance Fields for Modeling Dynamic Human Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.02872/) (2021)
- [PhySG: Inverse Rendering with Spherical Gaussians for Physics-based Material Editing and Relighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00674/) (2021)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)
- [GaussianAvatars: Photorealistic Head Avatars with Rigged 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02069/) (2023)
- [GaussianShader: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Shading Functions for Reflective Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17977/) (2023)
- [Video Based Reconstruction of 3D People Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.04758/) (2018)
- [GS-IR: 3D Gaussian Splatting for Inverse Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16473/) (2023)
- [SNARF: Differentiable Forward Skinning for Animating Non-Rigid Neural Implicit Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03953/) (2021)
- [Neural-PIL: Neural Pre-Integrated Lighting for Reflectance Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14373/) (2021)
- [Inverse Rendering for Complex Indoor Scenes: Shape, Spatially-Varying Lighting and SVBRDF from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02722/) (2019)
- [Neural Reflectance Fields for Appearance Acquisition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03824/) (2020)
- [3DGS-Avatar: Animatable Avatars via Deformable 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09228/) (2023)
- [Neural Rays for Occlusion-aware Image-based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13421/) (2021)
- [GaussianAvatar: Towards Realistic Human Avatar Modeling from a Single Video via Animatable 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02134/) (2023)
- [GPS-Gaussian: Generalizable Pixel-wise 3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-time Human Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02155/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [DRAWER: Digital Reconstruction and Articulation With Environment Realism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15278/) (2025)
- [Geometry Field Splatting with Gaussian Surfels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17067/) (2024)
- [Space-time 2D Gaussian Splatting for Accurate Surface Reconstruction under Complex Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18852/) (2024)
- [Differentiable Inverse Rendering with Interpretable Basis BRDFs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17994/) (2024)
- [MV-Performer: Taming Video Diffusion Model for Faithful and Synchronized Multi-view Performer Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07190/) (2025)
- [Image2Garment: Simulation-ready Garment Generation from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09658/) (2026)
- [DNF-Avatar: Distilling Neural Fields for Real-time Animatable Avatar Relighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10486/) (2025)
- [Relightable Holoported Characters: Capturing and Relighting Dynamic Human Performance from Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00255/) (2025)
- [LumiMotion: Improving Gaussian Relighting with Scene Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.10994/) (2026)
- [Real-Time Animatable 2DGS-Avatars with Detail Enhancement from Monocular Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00421/) (2025)
- [Generative Relightable Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.22718/) (2026)
- [RAGA: Real Time Ray Traced Gaussian Shadow Casting for 3DGS Avatar-Scene Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29329/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Efficient and accurate reconstruction of a relightable, dynamic clothed human avatar from a monocular video is crucial for the entertainment industry. This paper presents SGIA (Surfel-based Gaussian Inverse Avatar), which introduces efficient training and rendering for relightable dynamic human reconstruction. SGIA advances previous Gaussian Avatar methods by comprehensively modeling Physically-Based Rendering (PBR) properties for clothed human avatars, allowing for the manipulation of avatars into novel poses under diverse lighting conditions. Specifically, our approach integrates pre-integration and image-based lighting for fast light calculations that surpass the performance of existing implicit-based techniques. To address challenges related to material lighting disentanglement and accurate geometry reconstruction, we propose an innovative occlusion approximation strategy and a progressive training approach. Extensive experiments demonstrate that SGIA not only achieves highly accurate physical properties but also significantly enhances the realistic relighting of dynamic human avatars, providing a substantial speed advantage. We exhibit more results in our project page: https://GS-IA.github.io.