An apparatus includes a communication interface configured to receive a compressed bitstream including a base mesh sub-bitstream and a processor operably coupled to the communication interface. The processor is configured to decode a plurality of submeshes from the base mesh sub-bitstream. The processor is also configured to subdivide a submesh of the plurality of submeshes according to a subdivision iteration count to generate at least one subdivided submesh, including determine a number of vertex positions for the at least one subdivided submesh by use of a number of vertices associated with an original submesh and by use of distortion information between the original submesh and a base mesh at each subdivision iteration associated with the subdivision iteration count. The processor is also configured to reconstruct at least a portion of a mesh-frame using the vertex positions corresponding to the at least one subdivided submesh.