Bake Time Editor clips

Bake a Time Editor clip to merge existing animation into a single animation curve. This is useful after performing complex edits and layering to a clip or group clip as it keeps the number of keyframes created as minimal as possible.

The following image is of a collection of animation clips in the Time Editor and the Graph Editor before baking to a clip.

The next image is of the same collection of animation clips once they have been baked in the Time Editor. Notice how the animation curves in the Graph Editor are simplified because duplicated keys are ignored.

Merging clips

When you bake the animation on an object, the Time Editor reuses existing curves except for certain cases, where there are areas where the original curve cannot be used. In these cases, the Time Editor samples any region that has multiple curves that contribute to the same attribute.

Sampling occurs for clips that are:

• Crossfaded
• Interpolated (if the clips are on different tracks inside a Group clip that is being baked)
• Retimed (speed curve, time warp, and so on applied to clips
• Have attributes driven by non-curves, such as expressions or constraints
• Have animated weights
• Have layers

If you have two animation clips of an object in the Time Editor that are cross-faded, which cause the Time Editor to evaluate the animation curves to create the final keyframe values. In the following example, two blended clips are shown in the Time Editor and the Graph Editor.

In the next image, the clips have been baked together. Note how the keys where the clips overlap are combined. In this process, only animation curves in the crossfaded region are baked. Keys outside the crossfaded region are added only if necessary.

To bake a Time Editor clip:

Right-click the clip and select Bake to Scene or Bake to New Clip from the Time Editor Clip contextual menu. (You can use Bake to New Scene and Delete and Bake to New Clip and Delete to remove the original version of the selected file(s)).