Bake

General Usage
Options
Known Bugs/Limitations
History

"Bakes out" procedural animation into explicit keyframes.

General Usage:

Select object(s) that need baking.
Set the options below (the important ones are "Bake Type", "Animation Range", and "Every Nth Frame").
Hit Bake and wait.

Options:

Bake Utilities Rollout:

Collapse To PointCache:
This will convert all selected objects to editable meshes, and collapse away all modifiers, except their PointCache modifier.
Remove Cloth From... Group:
- All Objects/Selected Objects:
  Provides a quick way to remove ClothReyes from objects in a scene. Handy for making sure ClothReyes is totally gone after baking, and before network rendering.

Bake Rollout:

Time Sampling Group:
- Start/End:
  Sets the beginning and end of the time range to sample. Keep the range as small as possible.
- Every Nth Frame:
  Sets how often the object(s) will be sampled in the given time range. Keep this as high as possible.
Options Group:
- Bake Type:
  This selects what you want to bake out. Changing this will give you different sets of options in a new rollout below. Currently available Bake Types:
  Object Transform: For transform animations (this includes object position, rotation, and scaling animation, and animated hierarchies).
  Mesh Animation: For sub-object animation (this includes animated verticies, such as cloth animation or bone deformations). NOTE: This bake type can cause massive files size. Shape Animation: For sub-object animation on splines. Point Cache Animation: For all types of sub-object animation (should replace Mesh and Shape bake types, for the most part).
- Delete Original:
  Deletes the original objects after baking so you're just left with the baked objects.
- Add Suffix:
  Adds a suffix ("_BAKE") to the resulting baked object names.
- Select Baked Objects:
  Selects the resulting baked objects after baking finishes.
Out Of Range Group:
- In/Out:
  Sets the Out-Of-Range types for the resulting baked animations. These just provide a shortcut to setting the Out-Of-Range types available in trackview. For non-repeating animations, make sure you set these to "Constant".
Bake:
Actually bakes out the animation of the selected objects. This step can take a while depending on animation length and object complexity (when Mesh baking).

Object Transform Rollout:

Position/Rotation/Scale:
Checking these will create the respective keys in the resulting baked object. You typically only need Position and Rotation checked for an animating hierarchy.
Key Type:
You can set the type of keys created using these dropdowns.
For Position and Scaling you can choose: Smooth, Linear, Step, Fast, Slow, and Custom (Bezier).
For Rotation, you have a "Continuity" control. Setting this to 0.0 will give you linear rotations, and 25.0 will give you smooth rotations (though you may get odd overshoots).
You'll typically want Linear keys to get predictable baked animation.
Unlink From Parent:
With this on, all the resulting baked objects will be unlinked from their parents, effectively "flattening" the hierarchy. Make sure you have Position baking on if this is on.

Mesh Animation Rollout:

Bake Space: (currently disabled)
Sets whether the baked objects are baked to local or world space.
Output To:
- Morph Object:
  Create a morph object from the animated object. This is the fastest and most compact method of mesh baking.
  Note: Currently, the resulting morph object will be baked to world space (the object will be unlinked and have the pivot placed at [0,0,0]).
- Vertex Animation:
  Create an animated editable mesh object. This is very slow to create, and is slightly larger to store in the file. Only use this when there are problems using the Morph method.
  Note: Currently, the resulting mesh object will be baked to local space (the object will have the same parent as the original, and have the transform controllers instanced).

Shape Animation Rollout:

NOTE:

Point Cache Rollout:

Bake Space:
Sets whether the baked objects are baked to local or world space using the modifier or world space modifier versions of PointCache2.
Collapse Stack:
If on, the object will be converted to an editable mesh and have its modifiers collapsed away (except the PointCache).
Output Path:
Sets where the output cache files are written to. This path is automatically assigned as a UNC path when used with the PointCache2 modifier.
The cache file names correspond to the object names that the PointCache is applied to.

Known Bugs/Limitations:

You cannot Transform Bake bipeds, or bone objects using the IK controller.
Don't use Mesh->Morph baking on objects using Stitch or SimCloth. Both will crash. Use Vertex baking instead.
Mesh Animation baking is fairly limited currently.
Shape Animation baking will likely give bad results if spacewarps are applied.

History:

1999.11.11 - Rewrite of original meshBake script
2000.02.29 - Quick fix-up and release of mesh baking
2000.03.14 - Started/Finished transform bake
             Started Object/World space options for mesh bake
2000.04.05   - Added in/out tangent options for transform bake
           - Fixed a bug when baking objects with out of range types
2000.08.09 - Added Local Space Vertex Baking
2000.10.18 - Finished Shape Bake
2000.12.02 - Morph baking an animated mesh kept mesh animation in target... fixed.
2000.12.06 - Skin wasn't updating for shape baking... added massive workaround hack.
2001.01.17 - Added PointCache bake type.
2001.02.01 - Added "Collapse" option to PointCache, plus Collapse utility button.
2001.02.05 - Bugfix for instanced modifiers while PointCache baking.
2001.04.17 - New method dealing with PointCache bake when "SetCurrentObject" doesn't work.
2001.05.06 - Bugfix to deal with typed in cache paths.
2001.09.12 - Added Tracker bake type

Bug reports/comments/suggestions: [email protected]