A scalable three-dimensional mesh encoding apparatus, comprising: a 3D mesh simplifier to simplify a 3D mesh corresponding to a 3D object into simple meshes and more complex meshes according to a plurality of levels and to generate vertex position information and connectivity information according to each of said plurality of levels, wherein the vertex position information indicates 3D positional coordinates of vertices forming the 3D mesh, wherein a lower level simplified 3D mesh has fewer vertices than a higher level simplified 3D mesh, wherein the vertex position information about vertices to form a simplified 3D mesh is expressed in bit planes, each bit plane comprising bit values each having the same bit significancy; a weighting calculator to calculate a weighting of each bit plane for each of the simplified 3D mesh levels, wherein the weighting calculator is configured to calculate the weighting based on level information of the corresponding simplified 3D mesh and on the extent of the bit planes for that level which is determined based on the number of vertices in that level, wherein the calculated weighting is higher when bit planes in the same simplified 3D mesh level are closer to the most significant bit than the least significant bit; and a 3D mesh encoder to progressively encode the 3D mesh into a bit stream based on the calculated weighting of the vertex position information, wherein the 3D mesh encoder is configured to: encode the connectivity information between the vertices forming the simplified 3D meshes in an order of a lower simplified 3D mesh level to a higher simplified 3D mesh level, and encode the vertex position information in order of the weighting of each bit plane, wherein vertex position information of vertices of a simplified 3D mesh of a given level having a higher weight is encoded prior to vertex position information of vertices of the same simplified 3D mesh having a lower weight. a 3D mesh simplifier to simplify a 3D mesh corresponding to a 3D object into simple meshes and more complex meshes according to a plurality of levels and to generate vertex position information and connectivity information according to each of said plurality of levels, wherein the vertex position information indicates 3D positional coordinates of vertices forming the 3D mesh, wherein a lower level simplified 3D mesh has fewer vertices than a higher level simplified 3D mesh, wherein the vertex position information about vertices to form a simplified 3D mesh is expressed in bit planes, each bit plane comprising bit values each having the same bit significancy; a weighting calculator to calculate a weighting of each bit plane for each of the simplified 3D mesh levels, wherein the weighting calculator is configured to calculate the weighting based on level information of the corresponding simplified 3D mesh and on the extent of the bit planes for that level which is determined based on the number of vertices in that level, wherein the calculated weighting is higher when bit planes in the same simplified 3D mesh level are closer to the most significant bit than the least significant bit; and a 3D mesh encoder to progressively encode the 3D mesh into a bit stream based on the calculated weighting of the vertex position information, wherein the 3D mesh encoder is configured to: encode the connectivity information between the vertices forming the simplified 3D meshes in an order of a lower simplified 3D mesh level to a higher simplified 3D mesh level, and encode the vertex position information in order of the weighting of each bit plane, wherein vertex position information of vertices of a simplified 3D mesh of a given level having a higher weight is encoded prior to vertex position information of vertices of the same simplified 3D mesh having a lower weight. encode the connectivity information between the vertices forming the simplified 3D meshes in an order of a lower simplified 3D mesh level to a higher simplified 3D mesh level, and encode the vertex position information in order of the weighting of each bit plane, wherein vertex position information of vertices of a simplified 3D mesh of a given level having a higher weight is encoded prior to vertex position information of vertices of the same simplified 3D mesh having a lower weight.