Convert armatures to empties while retaining animation data I have a fully animated model that uses armatures. However, in order for it to be exported (using a DTS exporter in specific for Blender 2.78), I need to use armatures instead of empties.

Is there a way to turn the armatures into empties without having to reanimate everything? I've tried exporting this as a .bvh file and importing it as a .bvh with the target as "Object," but that just puts it far away and it just isn't in the right position.
If I got you correctly you may transfer the animation data from bones to empties and then bake it to keyframes.

Add an Empty in the same location as keyframed bone and give it a Copy Transforms constraint. Set the Head/Tail value to 0.500 to place it in the middle of a bone.


Select an Empty, go to the Animation bookmark of a Tool Shelf (T) and press the Bake Action button. Check all the checkboxes there and set the Object as a bake data type. Delete the bone finally.