AnyTop: Character Animation Diffusion with Any Topology
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Abstract (arXiv)
Generating motion for arbitrary skeletons is a longstanding challenge in computer graphics, remaining largely unexplored due to the scarcity of diverse datasets and the irregular nature of the data. In this work, we introduce AnyTop, a diffusion model that generates motions for diverse characters with distinct motion dynamics, using only their skeletal structure as input. Our work features a transformer-based denoising network, tailored for arbitrary skeleton learning, integrating topology information into the traditional attention mechanism. Additionally, by incorporating textual joint descriptions into the latent feature representation, AnyTop learns semantic correspondences between joints across diverse skeletons. Our evaluation demonstrates that AnyTop generalizes well, even with as few as three training examples per topology, and can produce motions for unseen skeletons as well. Furthermore, our model's latent space is highly informative, enabling downstream tasks such as joint correspondence, temporal segmentation and motion editing. Our webpage, https://anytop2025.github.io/Anytop-page, includes links to videos and code.
Key facts. Cited by 41 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 36 of its 63 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2025.
Builds on
36 of 63 references.
References · 36
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
- 2019Exploring the Limits of Transfer Learning with a Unified Text-to-Text Transformercited by 14,599
- 2016Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networkscited by 11,361
- 2017Graph Attention Networkscited by 8,923
- 2018On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networkscited by 1,214
- 2018Self-Attention with Relative Position Representationscited by 1,120
- 2022Human Motion Diffusion Modelcited by 1,080
- 2022MotionDiffuse: Text-Driven Human Motion Generation with Diffusion Modelcited by 780
- 2020A Generalization of Transformer Networks to Graphscited by 661
- 2021Action-Conditioned 3D Human Motion Synthesis with Transformer VAEcited by 501
- 2022TEMOS: Generating diverse human motions from textual descriptionscited by 492
- 2021Rethinking Graph Transformers with Spectral Attentioncited by 473
24 more
- 2023MoMask: Generative Masked Modeling of 3D Human Motionscited by 400
- 2023Human Motion Diffusion as a Generative Priorcited by 357
- 20163D Menagerie: Modeling the 3D shape and pose of animalscited by 312
- 2023OmniControl: Control Any Joint at Any Time for Human Motion Generationcited by 238
- 2023Guided Motion Diffusion for Controllable Human Motion Synthesiscited by 223
- 2020Skeleton-Aware Networks for Deep Motion Retargetingcited by 124
- 2024CLoSD: Closing the Loop between Simulation and Diffusion for multi-task character controlcited by 109
- 2023Telling Left from Right: Identifying Geometry-Aware Semantic Correspondencecited by 86
- 2022GRPE: Relative Positional Encoding for Graph Transformercited by 70
- 2023Single Motion Diffusioncited by 65
- 2016Deep Learning on Lie Groups for Skeleton-based Action Recognitioncited by 42
- 2023MAS: Multi-view Ancestral Sampling for 3D motion generation using 2D diffusioncited by 37
- 2023Skinned Motion Retargeting with Residual Perception of Motion Semantics & Geometrycited by 35
- 2021Contact-Aware Retargeting of Skinned Motioncited by 32
- 2023AMD: Autoregressive Motion Diffusioncited by 30
- 2022GANimator: Neural Motion Synthesis from a Single Sequencecited by 23
- 2022Unsupervised 3D Pose Transfer with Cross Consistency and Dual Reconstructioncited by 21
- 2024HUMOS: Human Motion Model Conditioned on Body Shapecited by 20
- 2023TapMo: Shape-aware Motion Generation of Skeleton-free Characterscited by 16
- 2024WalkTheDog: Cross-Morphology Motion Alignment via Phase Manifoldscited by 14
- 2024Skinned Motion Retargeting with Dense Geometric Interaction Perceptioncited by 13
- 2024DNF: Unconditional 4D Generation with Dictionary-based Neural Fieldscited by 8
- 2024Motion Keyframe Interpolation for Any Human Skeleton via Temporally Consistent Point Cloud Sampling and Reconstructioncited by 5
- 2024DragPoser: Motion Reconstruction from Variable Sparse Tracking Signals via Latent Space Optimizationcited by 3
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 13; 2026: 28.
41 papers.
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- 2025Motion2Motion: Cross-topology Motion Transfer with Sparse Correspondencecited by 19
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- 2025Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimizationcited by 7
- 2025ARMO: Autoregressive Rigging for Multi-Category Objectscited by 4
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- 2025Advances in 4D Representation: Geometry, Motion, and Interactioncited by 4
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- 2025Multi-Embodiment Robotic Retargeting via Guided Diffusion Modelcited by 3
- 2026PALUM: Part-based Attention Learning for Unified Motion Retargetingcited by 3
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- 2026ViPS: Video-informed Pose Spaces for Auto-Rigged Meshescited by 3
- 2025Topology-Agnostic Animal Motion Generation from Text Promptcited by 2
- 2026MoCapAnything V2: End-to-End Motion Capture for Arbitrary Skeletonscited by 2
- 2026ReActor: Reinforcement Learning for Physics-Aware Motion Retargetingcited by 2
- 2025MimiCAT: Mimic with Correspondence-Aware Cascade-Transformer for Category-Free 3D Pose Transfercited by 1
- 2026DancingBox: A Lightweight MoCap System for Character Animation from Physical Proxiescited by 1
- 2026A Unified Conditional Flow for Motion Generation, Editing, and Intra-Structural Retargetingcited by 1
- 2026TopoCap: Learning Topology-Agnostic Motion Priors for Monocular Video-to-Animationcited by 1
- 2026Follow Your Track: Precise Skeleton Animation Controlled by 3D Trajectoriescited by 1
- 2026SAMoR: Motion Modelling for Articulated Objects of Any Skeleton and Topologycited by 1
- 2026UniMate: One Unified Model to Animate Diverse Skeletonscited by 1
- 2025FunPhase: A Periodic Functional Autoencoder for Motion Generation via Phase Manifoldscited by 0
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- 2026R-DMesh: Video-Guided 3D Animation via Rectified Dynamic Mesh Flowcited by 0
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- 2026Two2Four: Generative Quadruped Puppeteering from Human Motioncited by 0
- 2026UniMo: Unifying Human and Animal Motion Generationcited by 0
- 2026Why Cross-Skeleton Retargeting Is Non-Identifiable: Structural Limits of Generative Motion Modelscited by 0
- 2026Retargeting Motions to Diverse Skeletons via Learnable Flatteningcited by 0
- 2026TAME:Topology-Aware Text-Driven Motion Editing across Heterogeneous Humanoid Skeletonscited by 0
- 2026Image Diffusion Models Are Good 3D Human Motion Generatorscited by 0
- 2026CAST: Real-Time Motion Capture for Any Skeleton Topologycited by 0
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- 2026Cepheid: Decoupling Scale from Structure for Cross-Family Motion Completion13 Oct 2026
- 2026CAST: Real-Time Motion Capture for Any Skeleton Topology10 Oct 2026
- 2026Image Diffusion Models Are Good 3D Human Motion Generators9 Oct 2026
- 2026TAME:Topology-Aware Text-Driven Motion Editing across Heterogeneous Humanoid Skeletons3 Oct 2026
- 2026Retargeting Motions to Diverse Skeletons via Learnable Flattening29 Sep 2026
- 2026Why Cross-Skeleton Retargeting Is Non-Identifiable: Structural Limits of Generative Motion Models29 Sep 2026
- 2026UniMo: Unifying Human and Animal Motion Generation11 Sep 2026
- 2026UniMate: One Unified Model to Animate Diverse Skeletons4 Sep 2026
- 2026Two2Four: Generative Quadruped Puppeteering from Human Motion28 Jul 2026
- 2026Neural Motion Blending Across Arbitrary Character Topologies11 Jul 2026
- 2026SAMoR: Motion Modelling for Articulated Objects of Any Skeleton and Topology2 Jul 2026
- 2026Follow Your Track: Precise Skeleton Animation Controlled by 3D Trajectories24 Jun 2026
29 more
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- 2026Mat'ern Noise for Triangulation-Agnostic Flow Matching on Meshes19 May 2026
- 2026R-DMesh: Video-Guided 3D Animation via Rectified Dynamic Mesh Flow13 May 2026
- 2026Rigel3D: Rig-aware Latents for Animation-Ready 3D Asset Generation13 May 2026
- 2026ReActor: Reinforcement Learning for Physics-Aware Motion Retargeting7 May 2026
- 2026MoCapAnything V2: End-to-End Motion Capture for Arbitrary Skeletons30 Apr 2026
- 2026ViPS: Video-informed Pose Spaces for Auto-Rigged Meshes19 Apr 2026
- 2026NaP-Control: Navigating Diffusion Prior for Versatile and Fast Character Control15 Apr 2026
- 2026A Unified Conditional Flow for Motion Generation, Editing, and Intra-Structural Retargeting15 Apr 2026
- 2026AniGen: Unified S3 Fields for Animatable 3D Asset Generation9 Apr 2026
- 2026DancingBox: A Lightweight MoCap System for Character Animation from Physical Proxies18 Mar 2026
- 2026BiMotion: B-spline Motion for Text-guided Dynamic 3D Character Generation21 Feb 2026
- 2026NECromancer: Breathing Life into Skeletons via BVH Animation6 Feb 2026
- 2026SynthVerse: A Large-Scale Diverse Synthetic Dataset for Point Tracking4 Feb 2026
- 2026PALUM: Part-based Attention Learning for Unified Motion Retargeting12 Jan 2026
- 2025MoCapAnything: Unified 3D Motion Capture for Arbitrary Skeletons from Monocular Videos11 Dec 2025
- 2025Topology-Agnostic Animal Motion Generation from Text Prompt11 Dec 2025
- 2025FunPhase: A Periodic Functional Autoencoder for Motion Generation via Phase Manifolds10 Dec 2025
- 2025MimiCAT: Mimic with Correspondence-Aware Cascade-Transformer for Category-Free 3D Pose Transfer23 Nov 2025
- 2025Advances in 4D Representation: Geometry, Motion, and Interaction22 Oct 2025
- 2025Motion2Motion: Cross-topology Motion Transfer with Sparse Correspondence18 Aug 2025
- 2025Puppeteer: Rig and Animate Your 3D Models14 Aug 2025
- 2025X-MoGen: Unified Motion Generation across Humans and Animals7 Aug 2025
- 2025Motion Generation: A Survey of Generative Approaches and Benchmarks7 Jul 2025
- 2025AnimaX: Animating the Inanimate in 3D with Joint Video-Pose Diffusion Models24 Jun 2025
- 2025Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimization13 Jun 2025
- 2025Multi-Embodiment Robotic Retargeting via Guided Diffusion Model27 May 2025
- 2025ARMO: Autoregressive Rigging for Multi-Category Objects26 Mar 2025
- 2025AnimaX: Animating the Inanimate in 3D with Joint Video-Pose Diffusion Modelscited by 15
- 2025Multi-Embodiment Robotic Retargeting via Guided Diffusion Modelcited by 3
- 2026ViPS: Video-informed Pose Spaces for Auto-Rigged Meshescited by 3
- 2026R-DMesh: Video-Guided 3D Animation via Rectified Dynamic Mesh Flowcited by 0
- 2026Mat'ern Noise for Triangulation-Agnostic Flow Matching on Meshescited by 0
- 2026NaP-Control: Navigating Diffusion Prior for Versatile and Fast Character Controlcited by 0
- 2026Image Diffusion Models Are Good 3D Human Motion Generatorscited by 0
- 2026Image Diffusion Models Are Good 3D Human Motion Generators9 Oct 2026
- 2026Mat'ern Noise for Triangulation-Agnostic Flow Matching on Meshes19 May 2026
- 2026R-DMesh: Video-Guided 3D Animation via Rectified Dynamic Mesh Flow13 May 2026
- 2026ViPS: Video-informed Pose Spaces for Auto-Rigged Meshes19 Apr 2026
- 2026NaP-Control: Navigating Diffusion Prior for Versatile and Fast Character Control15 Apr 2026
- 2025AnimaX: Animating the Inanimate in 3D with Joint Video-Pose Diffusion Models24 Jun 2025
- 2025Multi-Embodiment Robotic Retargeting via Guided Diffusion Model27 May 2025
- 2025Puppeteer: Rig and Animate Your 3D Modelscited by 43
- 2025Motion2Motion: Cross-topology Motion Transfer with Sparse Correspondencecited by 19
- 2025MoCapAnything: Unified 3D Motion Capture for Arbitrary Skeletons from Monocular Videoscited by 10
- 2025Motion Generation: A Survey of Generative Approaches and Benchmarkscited by 8
- 2025Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimizationcited by 7
- 2025ARMO: Autoregressive Rigging for Multi-Category Objectscited by 4
- 2025X-MoGen: Unified Motion Generation across Humans and Animalscited by 4
- 2025Advances in 4D Representation: Geometry, Motion, and Interactioncited by 4
- 2026BiMotion: B-spline Motion for Text-guided Dynamic 3D Character Generationcited by 4
- 2026PALUM: Part-based Attention Learning for Unified Motion Retargetingcited by 3
- 2026NECromancer: Breathing Life into Skeletons via BVH Animationcited by 3
- 2026AniGen: Unified S3 Fields for Animatable 3D Asset Generationcited by 3
12 most cited of 32 All 32 (JSON)
- 2026Cepheid: Decoupling Scale from Structure for Cross-Family Motion Completion13 Oct 2026
- 2026CAST: Real-Time Motion Capture for Any Skeleton Topology10 Oct 2026
- 2026TAME:Topology-Aware Text-Driven Motion Editing across Heterogeneous Humanoid Skeletons3 Oct 2026
- 2026Retargeting Motions to Diverse Skeletons via Learnable Flattening29 Sep 2026
- 2026Why Cross-Skeleton Retargeting Is Non-Identifiable: Structural Limits of Generative Motion Models29 Sep 2026
- 2026UniMo: Unifying Human and Animal Motion Generation11 Sep 2026
- 2026UniMate: One Unified Model to Animate Diverse Skeletons4 Sep 2026
- 2026Two2Four: Generative Quadruped Puppeteering from Human Motion28 Jul 2026
- 2026Neural Motion Blending Across Arbitrary Character Topologies11 Jul 2026
- 2026SAMoR: Motion Modelling for Articulated Objects of Any Skeleton and Topology2 Jul 2026
- 2026Follow Your Track: Precise Skeleton Animation Controlled by 3D Trajectories24 Jun 2026
- 2026TopoCap: Learning Topology-Agnostic Motion Priors for Monocular Video-to-Animation10 Jun 2026
12 newest of 32 All 32 (JSON)
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