A simple tutorial on the use of native Blender baking animation tool

For example there is a geometry of the snake with skeletal animation that is created with IK.

In this case the two bones have IK constraints on them with Empty objects selected as targets. And Empties are animated from 0 to 60 frames.

The armature bones themselves have no animation.

Then select an armature in the object mode and on the left panel in the graph Animation press Bake Action. In the Bake Tool settings choose the number of frames from 0 to 60, then check Visual Keying box and select Pose in the Bake Data option.

After that every changes of bone location will be baked as an armature animation. To optimize baked animation Simplify F-Curves tool can be used .

After simplification this animation can be used in the Blend4Web engine and beyond.


Here is a blend file of example.
https://www.blend4web.com/media/uploads/50922486-4954-4a39-89f9-3ae03e636025/animation_baking_example.blend

Great!
Thanks!

This was really helpful! Thanks.

The only part that had me confused for a moment is I didn't know that Simplify Curves is an add-on. For anyone else reading this, it's bundled with Blender, you just have to search in Preferences and enable it.

For anyone else reading this, it's bundled with Blender, you just have to search in Preferences and enable it.

Yes, sorry, I forgot to explain that thing. But it's not so necesery, you can leave baked animation as is, it's just an option if you want.