Moving Character Smoothly for a Distance

Hi, I want to make my character roll without root motion animation. So I am trying to figure out the best way to move my character for a certain amount of distance smoothly with faster speed. So far I have tried increasing velocity (which feels jerky and will stop the movement as soon as I stop pressing the directional button) and set actor location (which is not smooth since my character just teleports a distance instead of moving towards it). Any bright input?