(VIDEO QUESTION) Origin Points & Meshes more in depth explanation?

Here is my understanding - I might have a few details not quite right.

First, a mesh is a group of layers with an independent layer as root.

Mesh outlines warp better if it follows the correct outline of the shape. I use Auto by default, which uses contour. Sometimes I specify contour to force it, but that is usually a sign of dodgy artwork. Rectangle is basically the fall back “I give up” behavior. It makes things warp badly. Why give user’s the choice? No idea. I stick to Auto and fix the artwork if a rectangle appears, or contour as a hammer to make it work. I never use Rectangle.

Origins for meshes are where things rotate around (relative to parent for nested layers). E.g. you can put a Transform behavior on a nested mesh (that is, the root layer of the mesh) if you want to. If there, it takes over and will rotate or scale the layer relative to the origin of that mesh. I sometimes do this, but rarely. As you point out, the Face behavior rotates the head around the origin.

Note: I stay away from putting behaviors on non-independent layers (In the middle of a mesh). I don’t know what that does. I stick to putting behaviors on the root layer of a mesh so I can find them. Handles too I rarely put on non-independent layers. I suspect it makes no difference (I *think* they are attacked to the mesh the layer is a member of, so there is no real difference putting it on the root or on A nested layer in a mesh - but have not checked.) I think you can add them anywhere as you may turn independence on/off for a layer, so it would be confusing if they moved layers up to the root layer of the mesh.

The neck tag I think is mainly for the walk behavior. Not sure if used anything else... It is used to bob the head up and down while walking, while restricting the movement to not stretch the whole body beneath.

If you think of a mesh as a sheet of rubber, then as you move some points on the mesh, the rubber is going to try and flex in a way to minimize change at specific points (the changes will spread out over the mesh as much as possible). So the logo on the chest bends as a part of that flexing. To stop it, put a stick through the writing. That will stop that part of the mesh from flexing, so you can keep the writing straight. It will still lean over with the puppet (which is what you generally want) but it won’t twist.

The other one to watch is some behaviors take over movement. I think if you put a tag on an origin sometimes it can lock the mesh position. Basically only one behavior can control a mesh at a time. So putting a tag on the root (independent layer) of a mesh can result in that behavior taking control from something else. E.g. a walk behavior effectively auto-drags handles around so can lock the position of handles. Since only one wins, you cannot get different behaviors (e.g. a dragger sometimes and face behavior other times) control the position of something. By creating a nested handle, sometimes it works better because one behavior controls the origin when it wants to, and the other controls the handle when it wants to, and they play together better (relative to each other). Something like that.