# TokenLight: Precise Lighting Control in Images using Attribute Tokens

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15310 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15310/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 52 of its 75 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 52)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Flow Matching for Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02747/) (2022)
- [RoFormer: Enhanced Transformer with Rotary Position Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09864/) (2021)
- [Fourier Features Let Networks Learn High Frequency Functions in Low Dimensional Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10739/) (2020)
- [Consistency Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01469/) (2023)
- [Palette: Image-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05826/) (2021)
- [One-step Diffusion with Distribution Matching Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18828/) (2023)
- [PyTorch FSDP: Experiences on Scaling Fully Sharded Data Parallel](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11277/) (2023)
- [Self Forcing: Bridging the Train-Test Gap in Autoregressive Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08009/) (2025)
- [NeRD: Neural Reflectance Decomposition from Image Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03918/) (2020)
- [From Slow Bidirectional to Fast Autoregressive Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07772/) (2024)
- [Flow Matching Guide and Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06264/) (2024)
- [GaussianShader: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Shading Functions for Reflective Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17977/) (2023)
- [Fake It Till You Make It: Face analysis in the wild using synthetic data alone](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.15102/) (2021)
- [Shape, Light, and Material Decomposition from Images using Monte Carlo Rendering and Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.03380/) (2022)
- [RGBleftrightarrowX: Image decomposition and synthesis using material- and lighting-aware diffusion models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00666/) (2024)
- [DiLightNet: Fine-grained Lighting Control for Diffusion-based Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11929/) (2024)
- [Neural Gaffer: Relighting Any Object via Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07520/) (2024)
- [SwitchLight: Co-design of Physics-driven Architecture and Pre-training Framework for Human Portrait Relighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18848/) (2024)
- [StyleLight: HDR Panorama Generation for Lighting Estimation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.14811/) (2022)
- [Relightful Harmonization: Lighting-aware Portrait Background Replacement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06886/) (2023)
- [LightIt: Illumination Modeling and Control for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10615/) (2024)
- [DIB-R++: Learning to Predict Lighting and Material with a Hybrid Differentiable Renderer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00140/) (2021)
- [Face Relighting with Geometrically Consistent Shadows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.16681/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Dior: Drawing the Light of Image via Material-Decoupled Illumination Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.29925/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a method for image relighting that enables precise and continuous control over multiple illumination attributes in a photograph. We formulate relighting as a conditional image generation task and introduce attribute tokens to encode distinct lighting factors such as intensity, color, ambient illumination, diffuse level, and 3D light positions. The model is trained on a large-scale synthetic dataset with ground-truth lighting annotations, supplemented by a small set of real captures to enhance realism and generalization. We validate our approach across a variety of relighting tasks, including controlling in-scene lighting fixtures and editing environment illumination using virtual light sources, on synthetic and real images. Our method achieves state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative performance compared to prior work. Remarkably, without explicit inverse rendering supervision, the model exhibits an inherent understanding of how light interacts with scene geometry, occlusion, and materials, yielding convincing lighting effects even in traditionally challenging scenarios such as placing lights within objects or relighting transparent materials plausibly. Project page: vrroom.github.io/tokenlight/