# Motion Prior Distillation in Time Reversal Sampling for Generative Inbetweening

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12679 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12679/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 41 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Feb 2026.

## Placed in

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

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 41)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03458/) (2022)
- [CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06072/) (2024)
- [VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17982/) (2023)
- [Imagen Video: High Definition Video Generation with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02303/) (2022)
- [Align your Latents: High-Resolution Video Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08818/) (2023)
- [The 2017 DAVIS Challenge on Video Object Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.00675/) (2017)
- [DynamiCrafter: Animating Open-domain Images with Video Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12190/) (2023)
- [Lumiere: A Space-Time Diffusion Model for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12945/) (2024)
- [MCVD: Masked Conditional Video Diffusion for Prediction, Generation, and Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09853/) (2022)
- [Real-Time Intermediate Flow Estimation for Video Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.06294/) (2020)
- [AMT: All-Pairs Multi-Field Transforms for Efficient Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09790/) (2023)
- [Generative Modelling With Inverse Heat Dissipation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13397/) (2022)
- [Context-aware Synthesis for Video Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10967/) (2018)
- [FILM: Frame Interpolation for Large Motion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.04901/) (2022)
- [CFG++: Manifold-constrained Classifier Free Guidance for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08070/) (2024)
- [Video Frame Interpolation Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13817/) (2021)
- [BMBC:Bilateral Motion Estimation with Bilateral Cost Volume for Video Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.12622/) (2020)
- [MEMC-Net: Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation Driven Neural Network for Video Interpolation and Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.08768/) (2018)
- [IFRNet: Intermediate Feature Refine Network for Efficient Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.14620/) (2022)
- [LDMVFI: Video Frame Interpolation with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09508/) (2023)
- [Video Interpolation with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01203/) (2024)
- [ToonCrafter: Generative Cartoon Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17933/) (2024)
- [Generative Inbetweening: Adapting Image-to-Video Models for Keyframe Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15239/) (2024)
- [Framer: Interactive Frame Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18978/) (2024)
- [Generative Inbetweening through Frame-wise Conditions-Driven Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11755/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Rebalancing Reference Frame Dominance to Improve Motion in Image-to-Video Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19398/) (2026)
- [TriMotion: Modality-Agnostic Camera Control for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.20774/) (2026)
- [Can Video Diffusion Models Predict Past Frames? Bidirectional Cycle Consistency for Reversible Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01700/) (2026)
- [Bridging Online and Offline Handwriting via Differentiable Physical Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.03198/) (2026)
- [Multiple Hypothesis Flow Estimation for Video Frame Interpolation under Matching Ambiguity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.07120/) (2026)
- [Destination-Conditioned Adaptation with Semantic-Geometric Alignment for Generative Inbetweening](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.13187/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent progress in image-to-video (I2V) diffusion models has significantly advanced the field of generative inbetweening, which aims to generate semantically plausible frames between two keyframes. In particular, inference-time sampling strategies, which leverage the generative priors of large-scale pre-trained I2V models without additional training, have become increasingly popular. However, existing inference-time sampling, either fusing forward and backward paths in parallel or alternating them sequentially, often suffers from temporal discontinuities and undesirable visual artifacts due to the misalignment between the two generated paths. This is because each path follows the motion prior induced by its own conditioning frame. In this work, we propose Motion Prior Distillation (MPD), a simple yet effective inference-time distillation technique that suppresses bidirectional mismatch by distilling the motion residual of the forward path into the backward path. Our method can deliberately avoid denoising the end-conditioned path which causes the ambiguity of the path, and yield more temporally coherent inbetweening results with the forward motion prior. We not only perform quantitative evaluations on standard benchmarks, but also conduct extensive user studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in practical scenarios.