# AnimaMimic: Imitating 3D Animation from Video Priors

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14133 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.14133/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 50 of its 76 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Dec 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Video generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/video-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 50)

- [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)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00714/) (2024)
- [VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17982/) (2023)
- [VGGT: Visual Geometry Grounded Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.11651/) (2025)
- [On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07035/) (2018)
- [Human Motion Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14916/) (2022)
- [Accelerating 3D Deep Learning with PyTorch3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08501/) (2020)
- [MotionDiffuse: Text-Driven Human Motion Generation with Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.15001/) (2022)
- [Animate Anyone: Consistent and Controllable Image-to-Video Synthesis for Character Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17117/) (2023)
- [TokenFlow: Consistent Diffusion Features for Consistent Video Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10373/) (2023)
- [PhysDiff: Physics-Guided Human Motion Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.02500/) (2022)
- [GEN3C: 3D-Informed World-Consistent Video Generation with Precise Camera Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03751/) (2025)
- [Champ: Controllable and Consistent Human Image Animation with 3D Parametric Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14781/) (2024)
- [LivePortrait: Efficient Portrait Animation with Stitching and Retargeting Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.03168/) (2024)
- [4D-fy: Text-to-4D Generation Using Hybrid Score Distillation Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17984/) (2023)
- [HyperDiffusion: Generating Implicit Neural Fields with Weight-Space Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17015/) (2023)
- [SV4D: Dynamic 3D Content Generation with Multi-Frame and Multi-View Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17470/) (2024)
- [SDF-StyleGAN: Implicit SDF-Based StyleGAN for 3D Shape Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.12055/) (2022)
- [NeuroMorph: Unsupervised Shape Interpolation and Correspondence in One Go](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09431/) (2021)
- [TC4D: Trajectory-Conditioned Text-to-4D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17920/) (2024)
- [ToonCrafter: Generative Cartoon Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17933/) (2024)
- [SC4D: Sparse-Controlled Video-to-4D Generation and Motion Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03736/) (2024)
- [Human4DiT: 360-degree Human Video Generation with 4D Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17405/) (2024)
- [DreamMesh4D: Video-to-4D Generation with Sparse-Controlled Gaussian-Mesh Hybrid Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06756/) (2024)
- [AllTracker: Efficient Dense Point Tracking at High Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07310/) (2025)
- [Animate3D: Animating Any 3D Model with Multi-view Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11398/) (2024)
- [4K4DGen: Panoramic 4D Generation at 4K Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13527/) (2024)
- [Comp4D: LLM-Guided Compositional 4D Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16993/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [AniGen: Unified S3 Fields for Animatable 3D Asset Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.08746/) (2026)
- [Sketch2Motion: Text-driven 2D Sketch to 3D Animation via Diffusion-guided Skeleton Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28394/) (2026)
- [Follow Your Track: Precise Skeleton Animation Controlled by 3D Trajectories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25344/) (2026)
- [UniMate: One Unified Model to Animate Diverse Skeletons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.05415/) (2026)
- [Rigel3D: Rig-aware Latents for Animation-Ready 3D Asset Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.13129/) (2026)
- [SkelMo: Universal Skeletal Motion Generation for 3D Rigged Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.01518/) (2026)
- [RigPAPR: Rig-Based Animation of Static Neural Point Clouds from a Fixed-Viewpoint Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.06685/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Creating realistic 3D animation remains a time-consuming and expertise-dependent process, requiring manual rigging, keyframing, and fine-tuning of complex motions. Meanwhile, video diffusion models have recently demonstrated remarkable motion imagination in 2D, generating dynamic and visually coherent motion from text or image prompts. However, their results lack explicit 3D structure and cannot be directly used for animation or simulation. We present AnimaMimic, a framework that animates static 3D meshes using motion priors learned from video diffusion models. Starting from an input mesh, AnimaMimic synthesizes a monocular animation video, automatically constructs a skeleton with skinning weights, and refines joint parameters through differentiable rendering and video-based supervision. To further enhance realism, we integrate a differentiable simulation module that refines mesh deformation through physically grounded soft-tissue dynamics. Our method bridges the creativity of video diffusion and the structural control of 3D rigged animation, producing physically plausible, temporally coherent, and artist-editable motion sequences that integrate seamlessly into standard animation pipelines. Our project page is at: https://xpandora.github.io/AnimaMimic/