mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

MultiShadow: Multi-Object Shadow Generation for Image Compositing via Diffusion Model

arXiv 2603.02743 ↗First posted 3 Mar 2026cs.CVcited by 0

On the map: Diffusion models → 3D, point cloud and scene generation

Abstract (arXiv)

Realistic shadow generation is crucial for achieving seamless image compositing, yet existing methods primarily focus on single-object insertion and often fail to generalize when multiple foreground objects are composited into a background scene. In practice, however, modern compositing pipelines and real-world applications often insert multiple objects simultaneously, necessitating shadows that are jointly consistent in terms of geometry, attachment, and location. In this paper, we address the under-explored problem of multi-object shadow generation, aiming to synthesize physically plausible shadows for multiple inserted objects. Our approach exploits the multimodal capabilities of a pre-trained text-to-image diffusion model. An image pathway injects dense, multi-scale features to provide fine-grained spatial guidance, while a text-based pathway encodes per-object shadow bounding boxes as learned positional tokens and fuses them via cross-attention. An attention-alignment loss further grounds these tokens to their corresponding shadow regions. To support this task, we augment the DESOBAv2 dataset by constructing composite scenes with multiple inserted objects and automatically derive prompts combining object category and shadow positioning information. Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance in both single and multi-object shadow generation settings.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in 3D, point cloud and scene generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 20 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Mar 2026.

Builds on

20 of 30 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Shadow Generation for Composite Image Using Diffusion model22 Mar

Other references · 19

  1. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  2. 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,466
  3. 2023GLIGEN: Open-Set Grounded Text-to-Image Generationcited by 774
  4. 2022Paint by Example: Exemplar-based Image Editing with Diffusion Modelscited by 489
  5. 2023LayoutDiffusion: Controllable Diffusion Model for Layout-to-image Generationcited by 258
  6. 2022ReCo: Region-Controlled Text-to-Image Generationcited by 177
  7. 2023ViP-LLaVA: Making Large Multimodal Models Understand Arbitrary Visual Promptscited by 160
  8. 2021Making Images Real Again: A Comprehensive Survey on Deep Image Compositioncited by 63
  9. 2022ObjectStitch: Generative Object Compositingcited by 36
  10. 2021Shadow Generation for Composite Image in Real-world Scenescited by 35
  11. 2020SSN: Soft Shadow Network for Image Compositingcited by 26
  12. 2022Instance Shadow Detection with A Single-Stage Detectorcited by 22
7 more
  1. 2023PixHt-Lab: Pixel Height Based Light Effect Generation for Image Compositingcited by 15
  2. 2024Uncovering the Text Embedding in Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 13
  3. 2025Multitwine: Multi-Object Compositing with Text and Layout Controlcited by 9
  4. 2023Shadow Generation with Decomposed Mask Prediction and Attentive Shadow Fillingcited by 8
  5. 2024MetaShadow: Object-Centered Shadow Detection, Removal, and Synthesiscited by 5
  6. 2023DESOBAv2: Towards Large-scale Real-world Dataset for Shadow Generationcited by 3
  7. 2025BOOTPLACE: Bootstrapped Object Placement with Detection Transformerscited by 3

Built on by

Not cited yet.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024Thinking Outside the BBox: Unconstrained Generative Object Compositing
  2. 2025Embedding Physical Reasoning into Diffusion-Based Shadow Generation Under the Sun and Sky
  3. 2024LoMOE: Localized Multi-Object Editing via Multi-Diffusion
  4. 2024Controllable Shadow Generation with Single-Step Diffusion Models from Synthetic Data
  5. 2025Parametric Shadow Control for Portrait Generation in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
  6. 2026Reflection Generation for Composite Image Using Diffusion Model
  7. 2024SpotLight: Shadow-Guided Object Relighting via Diffusion
  8. 2025MirrorVerse: Pushing Diffusion Models to Realistically Reflect the World