Baking?

[markw]

There's been quite a few threads on the forum lately referring to baking of this and that in them. Its something I would like to know more about. And I was wondering, as this was not around (except for the baking of actions), when the TechRef was written would someone like to add an entry to the Hash Wiki about Baking?

What can be Baked? Why you would want to do it? The pros & cons of doing it. etc...

Think this might be helpful for other users and the curious.

[robcat2075]

What can be Baked? Why you would want to do it? The pros & cons of doing it. etc...

 

Briefly... particles systems like hair and sprites can be baked.

 

Baking precalculates and locks in their position on each frame.

 

A baked scene can be scrubbed through quickly, even backwards, without waiting for the particles to be computed.

A baked scene can be rendered out of order (NetRender) and get correct particle results.

A baked scene has potentially huge files (.par and .pai) created that store the particle locations.

[John Bigboote]

And another powerful NEW feature called 'Bake Surface' allows you to combine all the various decals and materials you add to a model into 1 efficient set of decals for color, specularity, reflectivity, ambiance etc... making for a more compact and efficient model.

 

HOW TO USE? After you are done with your model and feel it is final, right click on it's name in the PWS and choose 'Bake Surface' (V16+) You will notice new images are added to your project that correspond to new decals on your model. You can delete previous decals and (most) materials... it is always safe to 'Save As' during this operation.

[NancyGormezano]

And one can also bake Dynamic Systems: a chain of attached bones that has a dynamic constraint applied to last bone in chain. Usual suspects for use of dynamic constrained bones are antennae, tails.

 

Right Click in the chor window/Bake Dynamic Systems. Channels for the bones in the chain for position, rotation will appear in the chor.

 

In previous versions it was called "simulate spring systems"

 

Same pros as above: locks in position of the bones, so one can see & get consistent results when scrubbing in real time, as well as when rendering across cpu's. Can then animate other items in chor to interact with the baked movement.

 

Can also edit the "baked" channels, in the event of blips, or for more "creative" movement, or for interacting with other items in chor.

 

Can also use the baked dynamic system behavior as a "cheat template" for learning how "not dynamic constrained" other chains of bones might act for secondary motion (eg spine, head)