Bake Mograph object

[MaverickMongoose]

Hi Dr Sassi, hope you're having a great start to 2026!

I'm sure I've been able to do this in the past, but Im trying to bake the animation of an object that is being driven by effectors as keyframes.

I've tried 2 different methods , a CLoner driven by Effectors, and the object driven by effectors (Object deformation mode)

I tried to cach, bake as alembic, and bake object in the time line, and messed around with connect object, but it always bakes only the PLA, but I just want the Position/ Rotation.

Surely there's an easy way to do this Im missing.

Here's my basic setup with the 2 options - https://we.tl/t-tOTIqNtUUq

Cheers!

UPDATE: I did actually get this to work in the end by giving the cloner or object a cloth tag and 100% mix animation, can then bake the sim and get the POSITION / ROTATION, but thats such a long convoluted way of doing it, you must know a better way

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi MaverickMongoose,

Thank you very much for the wishes and the file! Yes, I had two weeks off, which is a great start to have, refocusing a little bit, and getting the holidays out of the system. I hope you had a good entry as well!

A cloner, even producing one clone, produces a virtual clone. While the Cloner is selected to bake the keyframes, the Cloner Keyframes do not change.

Please have a look below at how to get the cube equipped with Keyframes. Please note the Priority settings of the XPresso, and that I placed the new Cube (green for the demo) below anything else.
CV4_2026_drs_26_MGbo_01.c4d

If you like to dive deeper into that theme, I have explored quite a few cases to "bake" the results of various setups here:
https://cineversity.maxon.net/en/series/animation_techniques_for_teams?tutorial=animation_techniques_for_teams_part_01_course

It is a little bit outdated from the interface, but since you are seasoned in Cinema 4D, it will not produce a bad Cognitive Load effect that it might have for a beginner, while translate the older GUI. Hence I suggest it here.

Let me know if that works for you.

Cheers

[MaverickMongoose]

That's a great method, I didnt try xpresso! AI told me to use Cappucino but that also didnt work for me.

I ended up getting the Alembic to work in the end, I just had to play around with the settings until I had the right combination which took forever. Shame there's no super easy way to do it.

Will definitely check out your course too, looks like some prety advanced stuff, thanks for that.

Cheers!

[Dr. Sassi]

Thanks for the reply, MaverickMongoose.

Yes, it can be sometimes tricky; here I have the MoGraph Effectors as Deformers in Object mode in mind. I have never tried to bake the results. So I needed to have a closer look today.
XPresso can see a change of point values, which would indicate that the Effector uses the axis to Position, rotate, or Scale the object. Selecting the object shows the Axis static, even though the cube moves.
Since the points, even in the structure Manger are static, my unofficial conclusion is that the Effector in Deformer Object mode takes over from the axis it gets and acts on its own, like an object clone.
As you surely know, points are related to the object axis. So if the points and the object axis don't change, but the visual, (again) something takes over.

Which made me look at the points, via Tracer, then with a Cloner in object mode, etc. (and etc is a longer list of objects I tried). All works visually, but not baking.

Hence, the longer calculation chain. I harvest the point data with a MoGraph Matrix object, then apply that data to an object in Point mode. PLA baking is now possible.

Example
CV4_2026_drs_26_MGod_01.c4d

The other way might be already too similar, using a polygon that is "deformed via Effector, then the Polygon Object is used in a Cloner. Which, of course, made me ask, why not direct in the Cloner? Pure interest would be my excuse.
Example
CV4_2026_drs_26_MGpp_01.c4d

Enjoy