Jan Jinda shows ways to manage vertex order in a Maya project best.

The only way that computer graphics works are by keeping track of point orders. The same is true for 3D models, where vertices will have an embedded order to them. For the most part, you don’t need to manage the order of vertices, that is until you need to. If you work with Blend Shapes in Maya, for instance, the order of vertices becomes significant. If the vertices don’t match on your models, you will get unexpected results from the deformation. That is also true of other tasks in Maya, as a few things rely on the order of the verts.

Maya has tools to manage the order, but you may find that they only work under certain conditions. Check out this short quick tip tutorial from Jan Jinda who shows how to manage vertex order best, while covering all the pitfalls that you might encounter along the way. “Consistency of model iterations is critical when working in a team or when jumping to other software,” Jinda says. “In this video, I’ll show you how to fix order on meshes with the same topology.”