I’m trying to use some mixamo animations in my project, specifically some animations which feature a forward running jump.
Many of the mixamo movement animations allow for the animation to be exported where the character stays in place, or you can choose to export with the character moving.
So for instance a run forward animation, gives you an option to export with the character running forward in place, or where the mesh actually moves along an axis while running.
For some of the running forward jump animations I’d like to use, there is no option to export the animation with the character staying in place.
I’m not exactly sure how to utilize these animations in game. I’m using the side scroller project and the jump animation is three animations split in one. I’ve looked at the mixamo sample packs and the jump animations they’re using seem to be jump animations where the character stays in place.
What’s the best way to utilize animations where the character mesh actually moves during the animation (in world space I mean).
Those types of animations are using the so called ‘root motion’. Thats basically when the root bone moves in world at the exact rate of actual animation so that the feet stick perfectly relative to the ground and you dont get any sliding.
Heres a doc regard root motion, have a read: Root Motion | Unreal Engine Documentation
As an addition: mixamo animations arent suitable for root motion controllers, even if they are exported with root motion. The problem being that their skeleton has no true root bone. Their top hierarchy bone is the hip bone itself so if you were to use root motion on those, your character would perform some wired movements and rotations.
Youll have to edit the animations a bit in your 3d software and make sure to mute away the translation in forward and side axes on the hip bone. Or if you want something a bit more accurate, instead of just muting those channels, edit the curves to not move away, but still preserve their relative motion (like hip sway for example). Then you can export those clips back out as .fbx and use them in the engine.
Also keep in mind that mixamo is using an overall different skeleton than epics, so youll have to perform a complete animation retarget if your character is using epic skeleton or you are using any of epics example anims.
I was planning on using some of the mixamo characters - I tried retargeting a few of the animations to the UE4 skeleton but the results were less than desirable. I’m not sure if I’m ******** something up in the retargeting process or what. Perhaps I’ll look for alternative animations built for the UE4 skeleton.