v0xie / bakeactionstoshapekeys

Blender script to bake armature actions to shape keys

Bake Actions To Shapekeys

A script to automate baking actions to shape keys with corrective smoothing. Intended for use with meshes with complicated facial rigs that need to be optimized for real-time usage (i.e. Unity).

Usage

BakeActionsToShapekeys_Demo.mov

Instructions

• Select mesh objects and armature object last
• Meshes should have Armature modifier named "Armature" (without quotes)
• Link action you want to bake in the Action Editor
• Run script

Manual method

• Select the armature and link the action you want to bake
• Select your mesh Armature modifier and Save as Shape Key
• Disable your Armature modifier
• Select the new shape key on your mesh
• Save as Shape Key on Corrective Smooth modifier
• Select your new shape key and rename to your action name
• Repeat 200 times...

Gotchas

• Make sure all the bones affected by your actions are on visible layers
• You must have a Corrective Smooth modifier on all meshes (you can set the smoothing amount to 0.0 if you don't need it)
• Make sure your timeline is on the keyframe you want to bake
• You must be in Object mode when running the script

Works with Blender 3.3.1

Links

https://voxie3d.com

I make avatars for VRChat and ChilloutVR, sold on Gumroad and Booth:
https://app.gumroad.com/voxieavatars
https://voxie.booth.pm

License

GPLv3

bakeactionstoshapekeys's Issues

Restore initially linked action after running script