Bake Simulation Options

In the Animation menu set (F4): Key > Bake Simulation >

Hierarchy: Specifies how a keyset will be baked from a hierarchy of grouped or parented objects.

Selected: Specifies that the keyset to be baked will include only the animation curves of the currently selected object. Default is on.
Below: Specifies that the keyset to be baked will include the animation curves of the selected object and all the objects below it in the hierarchy. Default is off.

Channels: Specifies the channels (keyable attributes) whose animation curves will be included in the keyset.

All Keyable: Specifies that the keyset will include the animation curves of all keyable attributes of the selected object. Default is on.
From Channel Box: Specifies that the keyset will include the animation curves of only those channels currently selected in the Channel Box. Default is off.

Driven Channels: Specifies that the keyset will include any driven keys. The driven keys enable the values of keyable attributes (channels) to be driven by the values of other attributes. See Driven keys. Default is off.
Control Points: Specifies whether the keyset will include all the animation curves of a selected deformable object’s control points. Control points include NURBS control vertices (CVs), polygonal vertices, and lattice points. Default is off.
Shapes: Specifies whether the keyset will include the animation curves of a selected object’s shape node as well as its transform node. Default is on.
Time Range: Specifies the time range of the keyset’s animation curves.

Start/End: Specifies a time range from Start Time to End Time.
Time Slider: Specifies a time range defined by the Playback Start and End times of the Time Slider.
Start Time: Specifies the start of the time range (available if Start/End is on).
End Time: Specifies the end of the time range (available if Start/End is on).

Bake To: Specifies how you want animation from layers to be baked. See also Bake animation layers. Select from the following options:

BaseAnimation: Processes the baked animation to the BaseAnimation in your scene.
NewLayer: Processes the baked animation to a new layer named BakedResults by default.
Baked layers

Keep: When set, the selected object’s attributes stay on the animation layers.
Remove Attributes: When set, the selected object’s attributes are removed from their associated animation layers after they are baked.
Important: When Remove Attributes is set, the object’s keys will be removed from any associated layer that is not muted. If your workflow is to use layers like takes, mute all layers with keys that you want to preserve before baking layers.
Clear Animation: When set, animation is cleared from the source layers, but the selected object's attributes remain members of their associated animation layers after they are baked.

Important: When Clear Animation is set, the object’s keys will be removed from any associated layer that is not muted. If your workflow is to use layers like takes, mute all layers with keys that you want to preserve before baking layers.

Sample By

Specifies the frequency with which Maya evaluates the animation and generates keys. Increasing this value decreases how often Maya sets keys for the animation. Decreasing has the opposite effect.

The Sample By value is based on the Time Unit setting. It represents the frequency with which Maya will analyze the object’s animation and generate a key. A value of 1 creates a key at each time unit. Greater values decrease the frequency of generated keys, and smaller values increase the frequency.

Smart Bake

When on, limits the number of keyframes generated during the bake process by placing keyframes only at times where the baked animation curves have keyframes.

When Smart Bake is on, you can also turn on in the Animation Layer Editor menu bar to add keyframes based on the value you set.

When off, keyframes on the result curves are placed based on the Sample by value.

Increase Fidelity

When on, adds keys to result (baked) curves based on the Fidelity Keys Tolerance percentage value you set. This can help preserve the shape of your baked/merged animation curves without adding a large number of new keyframes to the result curves.

Note: This option is only available when you have Smart Bake on.

Fidelity Keys Tolerance

When Smart Bake and Increase Fidelity are on, this value lets you determine when Maya can add extra keyframes to the result curves.

For each segment of the result (baked) curves, this percentage determines how different the values of the baked curves can be from the source curves before Maya sets a new keyframe.

The lower the Fidelity Keys Tolerance, the more keyframes are added during the bake process, correcting differences between the source animation curves and the result animation curves.

The higher the Fidelity Keys Tolerance, the less new keyframes are added to your result curves, but the more your result curves are allowed to diverge from your original curves.

Keep Unbaked Keys

This option preserves the keys that are outside the baked time range and only applies to directly connected animation curves. When on, bake simulation does not remove keys that are outside the bake range. When off, only the keys created within the specified time range during the bake will be present on the animation curve after the operation.

Sparse Curve Bake

This option operates only on directly connected animation curves. It produces bake results that create only enough keys to represent the shape of the animation curve.

Disable Implicit Control

This option disables the effect of controls such as IK handles once the bake simulation has been performed.

Unroll rotation

This option ensures that there cannot be more than an 180-degree jump between keyframes (also known as Gimbal-locking). This way, you can filter large rotations that create flipping or shaking in animation.

However, activating the Unroll rotation option affects animation if keys are intentionally spaced more than 180 degrees apart.

Unroll Rotation is used mostly for mocap data or after having baked a constraint.