Title: UE 5.5.4 — AccuRig character retargeted from Manny: raised heels, sinking toes, foot sliding and stair issues

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hello everyone,

I am developing a Saint Seiya game in Unreal Engine 5.5.4 and would appreciate help from an animation programmer or technical animator experienced with AccuRig characters, IK Rigs and IK Retargeting.

My character, Seiya, was rigged using AccuRig. After retargeting UE5 Manny locomotion animations, I am struggling to obtain correct foot placement. I would like to identify the underlying issue before making further compensating adjustments.

Setup

  • Unreal Engine 5.5.4, with the editor interface in French.

  • Target character: an AccuRig-rigged Seiya skeletal mesh, named AccuringSeiya2027.

  • Source animations: UE5 Manny locomotion, including MM_Walk_Fwd.

  • Retargeting performed through an automatically generated IK Retargeter (RTG_AutoGenerated), followed by exporting the retargeted animation assets.

  • Locomotion Blend Space: BS_MM_WalkRun, with speed sample positions at 0, 230 and 500.

  • The character mesh was scaled to 0.4 in the Character Blueprint to fit the capsule. I mention this in case scale is relevant; I have not established whether it contributes to the problem.

Symptoms

  1. Incorrect foot angle/contact: the heels remain raised while the toes reach or penetrate the floor. Lowering the character can make the heels appear grounded, but the toes are then below the surface.

  2. Idle is also affected: I initially thought Idle was correct, but closer inspection showed that the apparent heel contact was hiding toe penetration.

  3. Walking: the character appears to walk on the toes, and the feet can float above the floor as the animation progresses.

  4. Running: after adjustments, straight running on flat ground improved, although some foot penetration remains in previews.

  5. Turning: there is visible foot sliding when running in circles.

  6. Stairs: the feet intersect the steps, and walking/running up and down looks incorrect.

Where I can reproduce it

The foot-placement problem is visible in individual animation previews, the locomotion Blend Space, the IK Retargeter preview and gameplay.

One observation that needs verification: while previewing MM_Walk_Fwd in the IK Retargeter, the source Manny also appeared to have raised heels/toe-only contact. I have not yet established whether the untouched source animation behaves the same when opened independently, or whether the retargeter preview/floor setup affects what I am seeing.

Tests and comparisons so far

  • Temporarily disabling the retargeter’s root-motion generation and pin-bone operations did not produce a visible improvement in my tests.

  • A vertical offset of approximately -8 brought the feet closer to the floor but introduced penetration. This did not resolve the heel/toe alignment.

  • An older running animation showed better heel contact. However, I cannot treat all older assets as a clean baseline because some may have been overwritten during previous retargeting attempts.

  • The stair mesh collision preset is BlockAll. The previous character appeared to handle the same stairs better, but I have not isolated whether the difference comes from animation, character configuration or foot IK.

Questions for an animation/IK specialist

  1. What should I inspect first to distinguish a reference/retarget-pose mismatch from incorrect foot or toe chain mapping, root/pelvis settings, scale issues, or a preview-floor offset?

  2. What is the correct way to align an AccuRig character’s feet with Manny in UE 5.5.4 without compensating by sinking the toes into the floor?

  3. How should I verify whether the target’s IK goals and foot bones are actually being driven correctly after exporting the retargeted animations?

  4. Which screenshots or settings would you need to assess the source/target IK Rigs, retarget chains, retarget poses and root configuration?

  5. Once flat-ground contact is correct, how should I separately diagnose turning-related foot sliding and stair foot placement? What should I check in the Animation Blueprint’s runtime foot-IK setup?

I am not assuming that all these symptoms have the same cause. A short diagnostic sequence would be especially helpful.

I would prefer a solution inside Unreal Engine where possible, because the character has mesh edits made in Unreal that I need to preserve. Please specify settings available in UE 5.5.4.

Thank you for your help.