Have you ever dreamed of being able to work non-destructively, take advantage of Blender's NLA, and export a game-ready version with a single armature and a single Action clip for your entire scene with just one click? I've done it!

Introducing "Animation Baker", the first module of "JJ Animation Tools", my first released add-on for Blender 5.0 and above!

Overview

JJ Animation Tools - Animation Baker is a Blender addon designed to simplify and automate the process of merging modular animations. It allows you to combine multiple armatures with their respective NLA animations into a single unified armature, while preserving animation integrity and intelligently managing bone prefixes to avoid naming conflicts.

Main Use Cases

• Modular animation: Merge characters composed of multiple parts (body, clothing, accessories) each with their own armature

• Optimized export: Create a single asset with one armature for export to game engines (Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot)

• Non-destructive workflow: Original objects are preserved, only copies are modified

• Batch processing: Process multiple objects simultaneously with configured FBX export

Core Features

1. Bake & Merge System

Intelligent Duplication

• Automatically creates copies of all armatures and meshes

• Applies transformations (location, rotation, scale) to copies

• Preserves original objects intact in their collections

Animation Baking

• Automatic baking of all active NLA tracks

• Intelligent detection of animation range (frame start/end)

• Generates one baked action per armature with complete keyframes

• Visual keying support for accurate results

Prefix System

• Automatically renames all bones with customizable prefix

• Updates FCurves to match new bone names

• Renames mesh vertex groups to maintain skinning

• Avoids naming conflicts during merge

Armature Merging

• Combines all armatures into a single unified armature

• Merges all baked actions into a single "Merged" action

• Intelligent FCurve copying without duplicates

• Preserves interpolation properties and keyframe handles

Mesh Management

• Option to merge all meshes into a single object

• Option to apply modifiers (except Armature) before merging

• Automatic reparenting to merged armature

• Armature modifier updates

Automatic Organization

• Creates a "MERGED" collection for results

• Automatic hiding of original collections

• Color coding to quickly identify merged collection

2. Intuitive User Interface

Dynamic Object List

• Manual addition of empty slots

• "Add Selected" button to automatically add all selected meshes

• Automatic detection of parent armature

• Intelligent prefix generation based on object name

• Individual or global entry removal

Per-Slot Configuration

• Mesh: The mesh object to process

• Armature: Associated armature (automatically detected if parent)

• Prefix: Customizable prefix for bones (one prefix per armature, e.g., "Body", "Clothes", "Hair")

Processing Options

• Merge Meshes: Merges all meshes into one (enabled by default)

• Apply Modifiers: Applies non-Armature modifiers before merging

3. Integrated FBX Export

Export Configuration

• Define export path

• Customizable asset name