# GAS: Generative Avatar Synthesis from a Single Image

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06957 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06957/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in 3D, point cloud and scene generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 51 of its 69 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Feb 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [3D, point cloud and scene generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/3d-point-cloud-and-scene-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 51)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06072/) (2024)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [Align your Latents: High-Resolution Video Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08818/) (2023)
- [AnimateDiff: Animate Your Personalized Text-to-Image Diffusion Models without Specific Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04725/) (2023)
- [Towards Accurate Generative Models of Video: A New Metric & Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.01717/) (2018)
- [Grounded SAM: Assembling Open-World Models for Diverse Visual Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14159/) (2024)
- [PIFu: Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution Clothed Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05172/) (2019)
- [Animate Anyone: Consistent and Controllable Image-to-Video Synthesis for Character Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17117/) (2023)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [One-Shot Free-View Neural Talking-Head Synthesis for Video Conferencing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.15126/) (2020)
- [SV3D: Novel Multi-view Synthesis and 3D Generation from a Single Image using Latent Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12008/) (2024)
- [Animatable Neural Radiance Fields for Modeling Dynamic Human Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.02872/) (2021)
- [Humans in 4D: Reconstructing and Tracking Humans with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20091/) (2023)
- [Everybody Dance Now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07371/) (2018)
- [Effective Whole-body Pose Estimation with Two-stages Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15880/) (2023)
- [Champ: Controllable and Consistent Human Image Animation with 3D Parametric Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14781/) (2024)
- [Function4D: Real-time Human Volumetric Capture from Very Sparse Consumer RGBD Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01859/) (2021)
- [GPS-Gaussian: Generalizable Pixel-wise 3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-time Human Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02155/) (2023)
- [Neural Human Performer: Learning Generalizable Radiance Fields for Human Performance Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.07448/) (2021)
- [SV4D: Dynamic 3D Content Generation with Multi-Frame and Multi-View Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17470/) (2024)
- [DisCo: Disentangled Control for Realistic Human Dance Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00040/) (2023)
- [MagicPose: Realistic Human Poses and Facial Expressions Retargeting with Identity-aware Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12052/) (2023)
- [Is Attention All That NeRF Needs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13298/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [LHM: Large Animatable Human Reconstruction Model from a Single Image in Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10625/) (2025)
- [HumanDreamer-X: Photorealistic Single-image Human Avatars Reconstruction via Gaussian Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03536/) (2025)
- [SIGMAN:Scaling 3D Human Gaussian Generation with Millions of Assets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06982/) (2025)
- [HumanGif: Single-View Human Diffusion with Generative Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12080/) (2025)
- [HoliGS: Holistic Gaussian Splatting for Embodied View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19291/) (2025)
- [Dream, Lift, Animate: From Single Images to Animatable Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15979/) (2025)
- [Controlling Avatar Diffusion with Learnable Gaussian Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15809/) (2025)
- [Bringing Your Portrait to 3D Presence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22553/) (2025)
- [AHOY! Animatable Humans under Occlusion from YouTube Videos with Gaussian Splatting and Video Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.17975/) (2026)
- [DAMA: Disentangled Body-Anchored Gaussians for Controllable Multi-Layered Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21001/) (2026)
- [GenLCA: 3D Diffusion for Full-Body Avatars from In-the-Wild Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07273/) (2026)
- [Large-Scale High-Quality 3D Gaussian Head Reconstruction from Multi-View Captures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.04035/) (2026)
- [EgoAnimate: Generating Human Animations from Egocentric top-down Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09230/) (2025)
- [GenFusion: Feed-forward Human Performance Capture via Progressive Canonical Space Updates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28997/) (2026)
- [HumanNOVA: Photorealistic, Universal and Rapid 3D Human Avatar Modeling from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.02573/) (2026)
- [AvatarDynamizer: From Static to Dynamic Human Avatars via Generative Dynamic Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19900/) (2026)
- [DiGS-Avatar: Single-Image Animatable 3D Human Reconstruction via UV-Space Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20759/) (2026)
- [Generalist Open-World Temporal Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.06823/) (2026)
- [Streaming Video Editing with Easy Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24788/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a unified and generalizable framework for synthesizing view-consistent and temporally coherent avatars from a single image, addressing the challenging task of single-image avatar generation. Existing diffusion-based methods often condition on sparse human templates (e.g., depth or normal maps), which leads to multi-view and temporal inconsistencies due to the mismatch between these signals and the true appearance of the subject. Our approach bridges this gap by combining the reconstruction power of regression-based 3D human reconstruction with the generative capabilities of a diffusion model. In a first step, an initial 3D reconstructed human through a generalized NeRF provides comprehensive conditioning, ensuring high-quality synthesis faithful to the reference appearance and structure. Subsequently, the derived geometry and appearance from the generalized NeRF serve as input to a video-based diffusion model. This strategic integration is pivotal for enforcing both multi-view and temporal consistency throughout the avatar's generation. Empirical results underscore the superior generalization ability of our proposed method, demonstrating its effectiveness across diverse in-domain and out-of-domain in-the-wild datasets.