How do I export animations to Unity that contain non-compatible deformers or effects?

If you have a game rig that you need to export to Unity, but you have used deformers or effects that aren’t compatible with Unity, you can bake these into the rig on export. For more information, see What is Baking? and Are there guidelines for creating game assets in Harmony?

About bake groups

A ‘bake group’ is a group that contains elements that need to be baked during export, and creating and naming these groups tells Harmony what to bake. When creating bake groups for Unity export, the following must be considered:

• The group must have a single input and output. You can make sure of this by using composites and pegs.
• Include all drawing layers and elements that you want to be baked.
• There should always be a single peg outside the group. Only include additional pegs in the group if you want their transformations to be baked. 
• Make sure to check all groups and group naming before exporting.

Step 1: Group the elements that need to be baked

1. In the Node view, find the elements that have the non-compatible deformers or effects.
2. Make a selection around the drawing layer and the connected elements by clicking and dragging. Remember to keep a peg outside the group.

3. Group the selection by doing one of the following:
   • If the selection has a composite, right click and select Group Selection, or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + G (Windows) or CMD + G (macOS).
   • If the selection does not have a composite, right click and select Group Selection with Composite, or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + CTRL + G (Windows) or Shift + CMD + G (macOS).

Step 2: Add the ‘bake_’ prefix to the groups that need to be baked

1. Add the bake_ prefix to the new groups by doing one of the following in the Node view:
   • For a single group, open the Layer Properties of the group and add bake_ before the name.
   • For multiple groups, select all of them and use the Add Prefix/Suffix button in the Node view toolbar to add the bake_ prefix to all of them at once.

2. All of the groups you want to bake should now have the bake_ prefix.

3. Once ready, export your scene to Unity. See Exporting to Easel JS for more information.