In various examples, systems and methods are disclosed relating to generating animatable characters or avatars. The system can assign a plurality of first elements of a three-dimensional (3D) model of a subject to a plurality of locations on a surface of the subject in an initial pose. Further, the system can assign a plurality of second elements to the plurality of first elements, each second element of the plurality of second elements having an opacity corresponding to a distance between the second element and the surface of the subject. Further, the system can update the plurality of second elements based at least on a target pose for the subject and one or more attributes of the subject to determine a plurality of updated second elements. Further, the system can render a representation of the subject based at least on the plurality of updated second elements.