Just what does baking an animations mean?

[majestic5]

and how is it done?

[dandan]

If you have an object constrained to another object, it follows it around. If you want, you can "bake" the constraint, and the object will have explicit keyframes instead of being constrained. You can also do this with path animation and other situations where one object is controlled by another in some way. In Maya, it's under Edit -> Keys -> Bake Simulation

[bonoman]

Well..actually...Baking is really Mayas way of converting all the curved animation to keyframes. Useful for Ik handles...use them to get the anim the way you wajt...then bake..and it converts all the ik handle movement to keyframes for every join (or whatever you selected)..this way you can delete ikhandles and not have them cause problems later on...this is VERY useful for creating cyclic animation.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
-Freud

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
-Freud

[jason-chee]

THANKS you guys, it helped me animate in IK parent constraint