Does Maya 2016.5 or 2017 have the option to bake a blendshape?

# 1 29-07-2016 , 06:32 AM

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Join Date: Jul 2016

Posts: 6

Does Maya 2016.5 or 2017 have the option to bake a blendshape?

Basically I want to bake an altered blendshape down to the original skinned mesh so I could then delete the blendshape but keep the changes.

Ive asked on the Maya forums and no one responds, I rarely get help there. I heard here may be better.

All I want to know if this is possible. If so, where is that baking function tucked under? Cant find it myself.

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# 2 29-07-2016 , 07:30 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

If you want to utilize the blendshape, the meshes must stay within the scene. Maya works on a dependency graph. The blendshape depends on those meshes in order to compute the blend. If you delete these shapes, it breaks the dependency, and the deformer no longer works.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 3 29-07-2016 , 07:33 AM

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Join Date: Jul 2016

Posts: 6

This is why I want to BAKE it. Theres an old plugin I use in an older version that lets bake the blendshape to the original skinned mesh, thus keeping the model changes AND vert weighting.

Then I could delete the blendshape and all is good. I just want to know if the latest has that functionality but its looking like it doesnt.

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# 4 30-07-2016 , 05:05 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

There is no built in function for this. However, you should know that your plugin would still need to keep the blendshapes, or some representation of them in memory, so while you clear them out of the outliner, they still exist in your scene in some form.

In production, I have never seen a need to delete the blendshapes from a rig. Just hide the group that they're in. This ensures compatibility as well.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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Does Maya 2016.5 or 2017 have the option to bake a blendshape?

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