1. A method for spatial motion vector prediction (MVP) candidate derivation for Direct mode and Skip mode in three-dimensional video coding, the method comprising: receiving input data associated with a current block in a dependent view; identifying neighboring blocks of the current block, wherein a motion vector of each neighboring block is associated with a corresponding reference picture index pointing to a corresponding reference picture; identifying a target reference picture index; for both the Direct mode and the Skip mode, selecting the motion vector of said each neighboring block as a spatial MVP candidate for said each neighboring block only if the corresponding reference picture index is the same as the target reference picture index; determining a final spatial MVP based on the spatial MVP candidates selected for the neighboring blocks; and applying video encoding or decoding to the input data using the final spatial MVP.