Edit4D: Editable 4D Scene Generation with Textual Control
Organizations: 1Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Republic of Korea · University of Science and Technology (UST), Republic of Korea
Abstract
We introduce Edit4D, an editable text-to-4D scene generation framework that constructs 4D scenes from separate background and dynamic character representations. Recent advances in generative models have enabled text-driven dynamic scene synthesis, but editable 4D scene generation remains challenging due to the need to preserve spatial geometry and temporal dynamics. Existing approaches typically generate holistic scene videos, where the background and dynamic characters are coupled, making object-level editing and flexible camera control difficult. Edit4D addresses these limitations through a stage-specific generation pipeline. Given a user instruction, Edit4D first decomposes it into stage-specific prompts for background, dynamic character, and scene-character composition. Using these prompts, we synthesize multi-view scene images with text-to-image and camera-conditioned generative priors and reconstruct a background 3D Gaussian splatting representation. We then generate a character image, animate it with an image-conditioned video prior, reconstruct a 4D mesh, and bind Gaussian primitives to obtain a character representation. Finally, both components are composed through text-guided segmentation and contact-aware optimization. A global scene refinement is then performed to improve harmonization and rendering consistency. By integrating stage-specific components, Edit4D enables controllable camera motion, flexible object-level editing, and the practical construction of editable 4D scenes. Project page: https://chanwo0kim.github.io/Edit4D/
Figures & tables
| Settings | Method | Text Align | Consistency | Aesthetic |
| 4Real [ 75 ] | 26.7% | 98.1% | 52.6% | |
| (a) | Free4D [ 35 ] | 24.7% | 97.6% | 62.3% |
| Ours | 27.1 % | 99.4 % | 68.3 % | |
| 4Dfy [ 2 ] | 27.6% | 98.1% | 56.2% | |
| (b) | Free4D [ 35 ] | 25.2% | 98.1% | 61.2% |
| Ours | 28.0 % | 99.2 % | 66.2 % |
| Method | 3D Structure | Visual Quality |
| Free4D [ 35 ] | 39.5% | 35.0% |
| Ours | 60.5% | 65.0% |
| Method | Scene–Character Recomposition | Character Appearance Editing | ||||||||||||
| Success Rate | Preservation | Time (min) | User Study | Success Rate | Preservation | Time (min) | User Study | |||||||
| GLM-4.6 | Qwen3-VL | Mistral-3.1 | CLIP | DINO | GLM-4.6 | Qwen3-VL | Mistral-3.1 | CLIP | DINO | |||||
| Free4D | 0% | 40% | 40% | 0.964 | 0.901 | 180 | 16.4% | 0% | 40% | 0% | 0.957 | 0.871 | 180 | 10.0% |
| Ours | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0.997 | 0.997 | 45 | 83.6% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0.991 | 0.988 | 45 | 90.0% |
| Init. | Global Refinement | Text Align | Consistency | Aesthetic | ||
| ✓ | ✓ | 26.8% | 98.7% | 68.0% | ||
| ✓ | ✓ | 25.0% | 98.9% | 67.2% | ||
| ✓ | ✓ | 26.6% | 98.9% | 67.7% | ||
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 26.5% | 98.9% | 68.2% | |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 28.1 % | 99.4 % | 69.0 % |
Appendix figures & tables11 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Task | Prompt guideline used for Instruction Decomposition |
| Background Scene Text | Objective: Extract only the background scene information from the user instruction. Rules: (i) Include only scene, environment, and objects. (ii) Exclude character identity, appearance, motion, and placement. (iii) Do not infer or introduce any information that is not explicitly mentioned. |
| Character Text | Objective: Extract only the character identity and appearance. Rules: (i) Exclude scene, background, motion, pose, and placement information. (ii) Do not infer clothing, accessories, facial features, or other attributes unless explicitly specified. |
| Motion Text | Objective: Extract only the character motion or action. Rules: (i) Exclude appearance, scene, and placement information. (ii) Describe only the character motion. (iii) Do not introduce additional actions or pose details. |
| Composition Text | Objective: Extract only the target object or region for scene–character composition. Rules: (i) Return a concise noun or noun phrase. (ii) Do not infer spatial layouts or additional relationships. |
| Background Scene Text | Character Text | Motion Text | Composition Text |
| Soft-serve counter with a pastel menu board, stacked waffle cones, napkin dispenser, sealed syrup bottles, clean white walls, and studio lighting | Baby panda holding a small vanilla ice-cream cone with both paws | Gently licking a vanilla ice-cream cone while holding it with both paws, with tiny head bob | Counter |
| Cel-shaded reading corner with a floor cushion, small table, closed books, bookshelf, pastel wall, and flat even lighting | Anime-style baby panda sitting while holding and reading an open book with both paws | Sitting and reading an open book, with blink and small head tilt | Book on the table |
| Minimal lounge with a beige fabric sofa, soft cushion, neutral wall, light rug, wooden sofa legs, and warm natural indoor lighting | Ring-tailed lemur holding a clear plastic boba cup | Holding a boba cup and sipping through a wide straw, with mouth and straw motion | Sofa |
| Bright daytime plaza with light stone pavers, a pastel gelato kiosk, benches, planters | Baby rabbit holding a small vanilla ice-cream cone with both paws | Gently licking a vanilla ice-cream cone while holding it with both paws, with tiny head bob | Yard |
| Sound-treated rehearsal studio with matte wood floor, acoustic wall panels, bass traps, cable hooks, powered-off amps, soft practical lighting, and a clear floor area | Cat seated upright, singing with an open mouth while holding a handheld microphone | Singing into a handheld microphone with subtle head movement | Center stage |
| Modern indoor atrium at dusk with lounge chairs, a small side table, planter boxes, stone floor, wood accents, soft ceiling lights, and an empty circular stone landing pad | Square stone fire pit with stacked gray stones, burning firewood logs, tall orange flames, and glowing embers | The flames flicker naturally upward and the ember glow changes subtly | Landing pad |
| Feature | 4Real [ 75 ] | Dream-in-4D [ 79 ] | 4Dfy [ 2 ] | Free4D [ 35 ] | Edit4D (Ours) |
| Input | Text, Video | Text | Text | Text, Video | Text |
| Output Representation | Dynamic Gaussian splatting for whole scene | Dynamic NeRF for whole scene | Dynamic Gaussian splatting for whole scene | Dynamic Gaussian splatting for whole scene | Background Scene & Dynamic Character Gaussian splatting |
| Scene-Character Separation | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Component Editing | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Character Composition | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
4D Scene Generation
4D scene generation creates dynamic 3D worlds with coherent geometry, appearance, and motion across time.
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