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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Artif. Intell.

Sec. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Human Reconstruction Using 3D Gaussian Splatting: A Brief Survey

Provisionally accepted
Dong-Lin  ChenDong-Lin Chen1,2*Mohd Shafry  Mohd RahimMohd Shafry Mohd Rahim1,3*Hiew Moi  SimHiew Moi Sim1Bin  WangBin Wang2Si  ChenSi Chen1Min-Song  LiMin-Song Li1,4
  • 1Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia
  • 2Jiangxi Institute of Fashion Technology, Nanchang, China
  • 3Sohar University, Sohar, Oman
  • 4Shaoguan University, Shaoguan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Reconstructing high-fidelity and animatable 3D human avatars from visual data is a core task for immersive applications such as virtual reality (VR) and digital content creation. While traditional approaches often suffer from high computational costs, slow inference, and visual artifacts, recent advances leverage 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) to enable rapid training and real-time rendering (up to 361 FPS). A common framework leverages parametric models to establish a canonical human representation, followed by deformation of 3D Gaussians into target poses using learnable skinning and novel regularization techniques. Key advances include deformation mechanisms for motion generalization, hybrid Gaussian-mesh representations for complex clothing and geometry, efficient compression and acceleration strategies, and specialized modules for handling occlusions and fine details. This article briefly reviews recent progress in 3DGS-based human reconstruction, we organize methods by input type: single-view and multi-view reconstruction. We discuss the strengths and limitations of each category and highlight promising future directions.

Keywords: 3D Gaussian Splatting, human reconstruction, human template, SMPL, animatable avatar

Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Mohd Rahim, Sim, Wang, Chen and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Dong-Lin Chen, caedmom.chen@foxmail.com
Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim, shafry@utm.my

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