# SurFhead: Affine Rig Blending for Geometrically Accurate 2D Gaussian Surfel Head Avatars

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.11682 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11682/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 48 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Oct 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 48)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [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)
- [Nerfies: Deformable Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12948/) (2020)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [Dynamic Neural Radiance Fields for Monocular 4D Facial Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03065/) (2020)
- [Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03092/) (2023)
- [PhysGaussian: Physics-Integrated 3D Gaussians for Generative Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12198/) (2023)
- [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)
- [GaussianShader: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Shading Functions for Reflective Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17977/) (2023)
- [I M Avatar: Implicit Morphable Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07471/) (2021)
- [Neural Head Avatars from Monocular RGB Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01554/) (2021)
- [NeRSemble: Multi-view Radiance Field Reconstruction of Human Heads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03027/) (2023)
- [PointAvatar: Deformable Point-based Head Avatars from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08377/) (2022)
- [VR-GS: A Physical Dynamics-Aware Interactive Gaussian Splatting System in Virtual Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16663/) (2024)
- [Latent Image Animator: Learning to Animate Images via Latent Space Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09043/) (2022)
- [SplattingAvatar: Realistic Real-Time Human Avatars with Mesh-Embedded Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05087/) (2024)
- [Instant Volumetric Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.12499/) (2022)
- [MegaPortraits: One-shot Megapixel Neural Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.07621/) (2022)
- [Reconstructing Personalized Semantic Facial NeRF Models From Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06108/) (2022)
- [Pixel Codec Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.04638/) (2021)
- [Relightable Gaussian Codec Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03704/) (2023)
- [RigNeRF: Fully Controllable Neural 3D Portraits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.06481/) (2022)
- [Drivable 3D Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08581/) (2023)
- [Realistic One-shot Mesh-based Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08343/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [RGBAvatar: Reduced Gaussian Blendshapes for Online Modeling of Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12886/) (2025)
- [DyTact: Capturing Dynamic Contacts in Hand-Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03103/) (2025)
- [UIKA: Fast Universal Head Avatar from Pose-Free Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07603/) (2026)
- [HyperGaussians: High-Dimensional Gaussian Splatting for High-Fidelity Animatable Face Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02803/) (2025)
- [TexAvatars : Hybrid Texel-3D Representations for Stable Rigging of Photorealistic Gaussian Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.21099/) (2025)
- [Benchmarking PhD-Level Coding in 3D Geometric Computer Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.30038/) (2026)
- [AvatarBack: Back-Head Generation for Complete 3D Avatars from Front-View Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.20623/) (2025)
- [GTAvatar: Bridging Gaussian Splatting and Texture Mapping for Relightable and Editable Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09162/) (2025)
- [From Blurry to Believable: Enhancing Low-quality Talking Heads with 3D Generative Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06122/) (2026)
- [CaricatureGS: Exaggerating 3D Gaussian Splatting Faces With Gaussian Curvature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03319/) (2026)
- [GeoDiff4D: Geometry-Aware Diffusion for 4D Head Avatar Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.24161/) (2026)
- [Self-Learning Expression Deformations for Data-Efficient Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05912/) (2026)
- [Wispy to Voluminous: Prior-free Multi-view Capture of Strand-level Facial Hair](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.08041/) (2026)
- [SpatialAvatar-0: High-Quality 4D Head Avatar with Multi-Stage Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15659/) (2026)
- [FA-LAM: Focus-Aware Large Avatar Model for One-Shot 4D Animatable Gaussian Head](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.20922/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in head avatar rendering using Gaussian primitives have achieved significantly high-fidelity results. Although precise head geometry is crucial for applications like mesh reconstruction and relighting, current methods struggle to capture intricate geometric details and render unseen poses due to their reliance on similarity transformations, which cannot handle stretch and shear transforms essential for detailed deformations of geometry. To address this, we propose SurFhead, a novel method that reconstructs riggable head geometry from RGB videos using 2D Gaussian surfels, which offer well-defined geometric properties, such as precise depth from fixed ray intersections and normals derived from their surface orientation, making them advantageous over 3D counterparts. SurFhead ensures high-fidelity rendering of both normals and images, even in extreme poses, by leveraging classical mesh-based deformation transfer and affine transformation interpolation. SurFhead introduces precise geometric deformation and blends surfels through polar decomposition of transformations, including those affecting normals. Our key contribution lies in bridging classical graphics techniques, such as mesh-based deformation, with modern Gaussian primitives, achieving state-of-the-art geometry reconstruction and rendering quality. Unlike previous avatar rendering approaches, SurFhead enables efficient reconstruction driven by Gaussian primitives while preserving high-fidelity geometry.