Root Motion Enabled makes animation Montage play in place

[Quickshot_Race]

Hello everyone. I am facing a problem with root mottion.

In the sequencer I have done a simple animation where the character makes a forward movement and I move the root_ctrl together with the character(some LY, LX movement).

I have root motion enabled in my AnimBP, I don’t manipulate movement from my code, nothing like that.

If I disable root motion in my animation sequence then the animation plays perfectly as expected
and in the end of the animation it “teleports” back to the initial place(expected behavior).

When i enable root motion, the character is doing a very weird movement. Like the animation is being done in place(one could even say, that the character tries to go backwards), and in the end of the animation a small glide forward.

Anyone has any thoughts/solutions?

[xx_pooya_xx]

Welcome to our forums! Glad you’re on the dark side mate lol.

For your issue specifically, I need to ask whether you are using UE 5.6.X since 5.6 has so many issues with retargetting animations, root motions etc.

What I would suggest though is looking at these things:

If you are in your Level Sequencer, make sure to have this:

And if you have any animations after it that are supposed to follow after, right click on them and do ‘Match with this bone in Clip’:

Lastly, on the animation sequence itself for Montages and everything else, make sure that as you said ‘Enable Root Motion’ is enabled. And if it is, debug the root bone movement.

As you see, the animation has this curve thingy which means the root motion of the animation.

If you see this (red or without the curve) that means root motion is not working. (or if your character is stationary)

If you want to see more about root motion and debug it to make sure it 100% works,

On the Eye Icon → Animation → Change it to ‘Loop’ From ‘Loop and Reset’.

This will keep the root motion going. So if it snaps back, it means the animation sequence is the issue.

Would love to know what version of UE ur using. Because for 5.6 which is our VR project right now, I realized after 2 weeks of work (I know lol) that then animations I retargetted inside of UE 5.6 had their root motions taken away. I did that with the same setup in 5.7 (or other versions doesn’t matter) and I exported as FBX and imported them, and root motion was completely fine!!

Again this really depends on your setup but since you mentioned Montage, I assume the second feedback is what you are looking for.

Best of luck mate! And welcome again :DDD

[Quickshot_Race]

First of all, thanks for the reply and welcoming me :).

So, I opened my animation sequence and it seems to me that’s the root motion there is looking perfect. I have made an example with just a simple walk and forward motion.

Here is how the animation sequence looks:

So, I loaded this animation in the sequencer to check it out. It plays exactly like it does in game.
The root is not moving at all and the character is doing the motion in place. It almost looks like he’s leaning back(not sure if this can indicate something to you).

Maybe some information on how I made the animation could give out the culprit:

I created a level sequence, added my character_bp, moved the rig around (I made the forward movement moving the pelvis and feet), moved the root_ctrl respectively to match the movement, took a couple keyframes and baked the animation sequence.

Also another note: If I disable the root motion from the animation sequence, the character moves in the sequencer, leaving the collision capsule behind and just teleports back in the end of the animation.

P.S. I use unreal 5.6

[xx_pooya_xx]

Ok so you are using 5.6 first of all lol.

Ok so from what Im guessing, since the Anim Sequence is right, let’s just try this

If you have an Anim BP, go to Class Defaults and make sure Root Motion mode is set to either ‘from Montages Only’ or ‘from everything’.

Secondly, I gotta ask just to make sure: You have this problem in a character? Or just a mesh even? cuz it could just be the capsule and the physics that come with it.