Abstract: A plurality of landmarks are automatically located on a 3-dimensional polygonal mesh of connected vertices. A probabilistic graph is generated for the plurality of landmarks pre-identified on each of a first set of 3-dimensional models. The graph represents local surface characteristics for each landmark and relational positions between neighboring pairs of landmarks. Local surface characteristics are determined for each vertex of the mesh. For each landmark, a set of the vertices is identified that satisfies a criteria based on a surface difference between the vertex local surface characteristics and the landmark local surface characteristics. A relational position for each pair of vertices from the sets of vertices corresponding to the neighboring pairs is determined based on the graph. One of the vertices is determined for each of the plurality of landmarks to minimize the surface difference and the relational difference for the landmark.