A Vertex Group is simply a collection of vertices (points on a mesh) that you assign a name to and can use for special purposes—like rigging, modifiers, or selection.
Think of it as tagging certain vertices with a label so Blender knows “this part of the mesh belongs together.”
🔑 Why Vertex Groups are Important
Rigging / Armatures
When you bind a mesh to an armature, Blender creates vertex groups automatically.
Each group corresponds to a bone’s name.
Example: The "Bone_L_Arm" vertex group contains the vertices of the left arm that should follow that bone.
Weights define how much influence each bone has (via weight painting).
Modifiers
Many modifiers (like Armature, Lattice, Shrinkwrap, Mask, etc.) can use vertex groups to control which part of the mesh they affect.
Example: A Mask Modifier can hide only the vertices in a specific vertex group.
Selections
You can quickly select/deselect saved vertex groups in Edit Mode.
Useful for modeling complex meshes.
🔹 How to Create and Use Vertex Groups
Go to Properties → Object Data Properties → Vertex Groups (triangle icon).
Click + to create a new vertex group.
Select vertices in Edit Mode → Click Assign (to add them to the group).
You can set weights (0.0 – 1.0) to control influence.
Use Select / Deselect buttons to quickly work with them later.
🔹 Example
You have a character with an arm bone.
The arm’s vertices belong to the vertex group “Arm.L”.
When you move that bone, only those vertices move because they’re part of that group.
✅ In short:
A Vertex Group is a named set of vertices, often with weights, that Blender uses for rigging, modifiers, and selections. They’re the backbone of smooth character animation and deformation.
