# EliGen: Entity-Level Controlled Image Generation with Regional Attention

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.01097 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01097/

## Key facts

- Cited by 33 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 33 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jan 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Exploring the Limits of Transfer Learning with a Unified Text-to-Text Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10683/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Qwen2.5 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15115/) (2024)
- [SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01952/) (2023)
- [Qwen2-VL: Enhancing Vision-Language Model's Perception of the World at Any Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12191/) (2024)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [Grounding DINO: Marrying DINO with Grounded Pre-Training for Open-Set Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05499/) (2023)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [InternVL: Scaling up Vision Foundation Models and Aligning for Generic Visual-Linguistic Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14238/) (2023)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01569/) (2023)
- [GLIGEN: Open-Set Grounded Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07093/) (2023)
- [MultiDiffusion: Fusing Diffusion Paths for Controlled Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08113/) (2023)
- [YOLOv11: An Overview of the Key Architectural Enhancements](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17725/) (2024)
- [DiffusionDB: A Large-scale Prompt Gallery Dataset for Text-to-Image Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.14896/) (2022)
- [LayoutDiffusion: Controllable Diffusion Model for Layout-to-image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17189/) (2023)
- [CogVLM2: Visual Language Models for Image and Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.16500/) (2024)
- [InstanceDiffusion: Instance-level Control for Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03290/) (2024)
- [Dense Text-to-Image Generation with Attention Modulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12964/) (2023)
- [In-Context LoRA for Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23775/) (2024)
- [MIGC: Multi-Instance Generation Controller for Text-to-Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05408/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [EasyControl: Adding Efficient and Flexible Control for Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07027/) (2025)
- [Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation Models: Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02567/) (2025)
- [CreatiDesign: A Unified Multi-Conditional Diffusion Transformer for Creative Graphic Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19114/) (2025)
- [ContextGen: Contextual Layout Anchoring for Identity-Consistent Multi-Instance Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11000/) (2025)
- [Seg2Any: Open-set Segmentation-Mask-to-Image Generation with Precise Shape and Semantic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00596/) (2025)
- [OverLayBench: A Benchmark for Layout-to-Image Generation with Dense Overlaps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19282/) (2025)
- [Nexus-Gen: Unified Image Understanding, Generation, and Editing via Prefilled Autoregression in Shared Embedding Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21356/) (2025)
- [CoT-lized Diffusion: Let's Reinforce T2I Generation Step-by-step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04451/) (2025)
- [LAMIC: Layout-Aware Multi-Image Composition via Scalability of Multimodal Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00477/) (2025)
- [AttriCtrl: Fine-Grained Control of Aesthetic Attribute Intensity in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02151/) (2025)
- [TerraGen: A Unified Multi-Task Layout Generation Framework for Remote Sensing Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21391/) (2025)
- [RefineAnything: Multimodal Region-Specific Refinement for Perfect Local Details](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.06870/) (2026)
- [PositionIC: Unified Position and Identity Consistency for Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13861/) (2025)
- [MetaPoint: Unlocking Precise Spatial Control in Agentic Visual Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05031/) (2026)
- [Layout-Conditioned Autoregressive Text-to-Image Generation via Structured Masking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12046/) (2025)
- [Diffusion Templates: A Unified Plugin Framework for Controllable Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24351/) (2026)
- [DreamOmni3: Scribble-based Editing and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.22525/) (2025)
- [Advancing Aesthetic Image Generation via Composition Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.04609/) (2026)
- [DreamingComics: A Story Visualization Pipeline via Subject and Layout Customized Generation using Video Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01686/) (2025)
- [Shifting the Breaking Point of Flow Matching for Multi-Instance Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08749/) (2026)
- [EchoGen: Cycle-Consistent Learning for Unified Layout-Image Generation and Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18001/) (2026)
- [OcclusionFormer: Arranging Z-Order for Layout-Grounded Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21343/) (2026)
- [Spectral-Progressive Thought Flow for Lightweight Multimodal Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.02842/) (2026)
- [DEIG: Detail-Enhanced Instance Generation with Fine-Grained Semantic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18282/) (2026)
- [AnyPhoto: Multi-Person Identity Preserving Image Generation with ID Adaptive Modulation on Location Canvas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.14770/) (2026)
- [OneHOI: Unifying Human-Object Interaction Generation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.14062/) (2026)
- [Editing Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31278/) (2026)
- [InstanceControl: Controllable Complex Image Generation without Instance Labeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31924/) (2026)
- [Appearance Pointers -- Multimodal Region Control of Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.19344/) (2026)
- [ControlRef: Efficient Layout-Guided Multi-Instance Generation via Anchored 4D-RoPE](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.06878/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in diffusion models have significantly advanced text-to-image generation, yet global text prompts alone remain insufficient for achieving fine-grained control over individual entities within an image. To address this limitation, we present EliGen, a novel framework for Entity-level controlled image Generation. Firstly, we put forward regional attention, a mechanism for diffusion transformers that requires no additional parameters, seamlessly integrating entity prompts and arbitrary-shaped spatial masks. By contributing a high-quality dataset with fine-grained spatial and semantic entity-level annotations, we train EliGen to achieve robust and accurate entity-level manipulation, surpassing existing methods in both spatial precision and image quality. Additionally, we propose an inpainting fusion pipeline, extending its capabilities to multi-entity image inpainting tasks. We further demonstrate its flexibility by integrating it with other open-source models such as IP-Adapter, In-Context LoRA and MLLM, unlocking new creative possibilities. The source code, model, and dataset are published at https://github.com/modelscope/DiffSynth-Studio.git.