Applying F-Curve modifiers
F-Curve modifiers cannot be applied. And of course applying them can come with a number of problems. Here are some of those issues and how they can be addressed.
-
Actions cannot be infinitely long
Before applying an action, the user could be prompted for the start and end frames. If the user does not respond, the start and end frames of the scene could be used.
-
Keys cannot be infinitely dense
Although some modifiers can lead to F-curves being modified in a sub-frame level, there can't be infinitely many key frames between two frames in an action. Therefore, alongside the start and end frames, the user could also be prompted to set the resolution (difference in frames between two neighboring key frames) of the baked curve.
There may still be many other problems with applying F-Curve modifiers, but adding them could be very useful; specially when trying to destructively edit curves modified by modifiers.
4 Comments
you can just bake the FCurve. In the Graph Editor:
Channels->Bake Channels. That operator has an option to also bake modifiersYes; however, there are not many options for how the modifier should apply (i.e. there is no resolution option) and also it is not possible to bake only the selected modifiers instead of all of them.
there is an option that determines the key density. But yes there is no option to only bake a subset of modifiers. That could be added. We'd just need a warning that triggers when you apply the modifiers in the wrong order.
This might take a while to implement depending on the approach... But it would be good, also in the UI logical sense of consistency for Modifiers in Blender.
Ideally, (if the Applied Modifiers would Generate Keyframes & Curve Interpolations, not through Baking, but based on analyzing their mathematical patterns, alongside their previous Keyframing & Curve Interpolating conditions (e.g., Keyframed Curve Points on the Timeline/Frame Range and their 'heights' in the graph, their current specific Handlers Setups, etc.), into smaller Keyframes & Curve Interpolations... However, such Automation approach seems highly advanced, in comparison to current Baking Automation approach one by one (total analysis, separation, of the Keyframes & Curve Interpolations system); but Blender is already doing the calculations internally with the adaptive Modifiers... so it should be able to 'translate' them into newly Generated Keyframing & Curve Interpolation Setups that are more handy than Baking.
However... I don't really see currently any good use-case, for 3D Character Animation (at least not in my case currently; though I can see how interesting it could be as a feature). Yes, it would still be nice to have on a "wishlist" of features, why not? but it would need a stronger purpose if it's too complicated to get implemented.
I usually think of Baking as a last resort. That is also one of the reasons I'm Upvoting.