# GASPACHO: Gaussian Splatting for Controllable Humans and Objects

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.09342 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09342/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 74 of its 97 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 74)

- [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)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [4D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08528/) (2023)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [End-to-end Recovery of Human Shape and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06584/) (2017)
- [Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09713/) (2023)
- [Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08128/) (2016)
- [Zip-NeRF: Anti-Aliased Grid-Based Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06706/) (2023)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [Nerfstudio: A Modular Framework for Neural Radiance Field Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04264/) (2023)
- [Neural Fields in Visual Computing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11426/) (2021)
- [PIFuHD: Multi-Level Pixel-Aligned Implicit Function for High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00452/) (2020)
- [HumanNeRF: Free-viewpoint Rendering of Moving People from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04127/) (2022)
- [GRAB: A Dataset of Whole-Body Human Grasping of Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.11200/) (2020)
- [SplaTAM: Splat, Track & Map 3D Gaussians for Dense RGB-D SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02126/) (2023)
- [Animatable Neural Radiance Fields for Modeling Dynamic Human Bodies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.02872/) (2021)
- [Spacetime Gaussian Feature Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16812/) (2023)
- [Resolving 3D Human Pose Ambiguities with 3D Scene Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06963/) (2019)
- [ARCH: Animatable Reconstruction of Clothed Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04572/) (2020)
- [BEHAVE: Dataset and Method for Tracking Human Object Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06950/) (2022)
- [NeuMan: Neural Human Radiance Field from a Single Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12575/) (2022)
- [Video Based Reconstruction of 3D People Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.04758/) (2018)
- [SNARF: Differentiable Forward Skinning for Animating Non-Rigid Neural Implicit Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03953/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [AHA! Animating Human Avatars in Diverse Scenes with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09827/) (2025)
- [AHOY! Animatable Humans under Occlusion from YouTube Videos with Gaussian Splatting and Video Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.17975/) (2026)
- [Animated 3DGS Avatars in Diverse Scenes with Consistent Lighting and Shadows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01660/) (2026)
- [CoGS: Compositional Dynamic Human-Object Scenes Gaussian Splatting from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28820/) (2026)
- [RAGA: Real Time Ray Traced Gaussian Shadow Casting for 3DGS Avatar-Scene Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29329/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present GASPACHO, a method for generating photorealistic, controllable renderings of human-object interactions from multi-view RGB video. Unlike prior work that reconstructs only the human and treats objects as background, GASPACHO simultaneously recovers animatable templates for both the human and the interacting object as distinct sets of Gaussians, thereby allowing for controllable renderings of novel human object interactions in different poses from novel-camera viewpoints. We introduce a novel formulation that learns object Gaussians on an underlying 2D surface manifold rather than in 3D volume, yielding sharper, fine-grained object details for dynamic object reconstruction. We further propose a contact constraint in Gaussian space that regularizes human-object relations and enables natural, physically plausible animation. Across three benchmarks - BEHAVE, NeuralDome, and DNA-Rendering - GASPACHO achieves high-quality reconstructions under heavy occlusion and supports controllable synthesis of novel human-object interactions. We also demonstrate that our method allows for composition of humans and objects in 3D scenes and for the first time showcase that neural rendering can be used for the controllable generation of photoreal humans interacting with dynamic objects in diverse scenes. Our results are available at: https://miraymen.github.io/gaspacho/
