Hi everyone,
I wanted to share some lessons I’ve learned (often the hard way) while working on character animation in Unreal Engine. Whether you’re just getting started or have a few projects under your belt, I hope this helps you dodge a few headaches!
- Importing Characters Without Cleaning Up the Rig
Early on, I imported a character from Blender with a rig that had extra bones, unused controls, and non-uniform scales. Unreal… didn’t like that. Animations behaved weirdly, especially when retargeting.
Lesson:
Always clean your skeleton hierarchy, apply scale transforms, and name bones clearly before exporting.
Follow Epic’s skeleton conventions if you plan to use existing animation assets or retargeting.
- Ignoring Root Motion (Until It Broke Everything)
I thought I didn’t need root motion for a simple walking animation. Turns out, some blend spaces and montages work completely differently depending on whether root motion is enabled.
Lesson:
Learn when and how to use root motion vs in-place animations. It affects not just movement, but syncing with physics and game logic.
- Overcomplicating the Animation Blueprint
I once built an anim blueprint with so many states and blend nodes that debugging it felt like chasing spaghetti code. One transition broke and I spent an hour finding it.
Lesson:
Keep your state machine modular and clean. Use nested state machines or split logic using blend layers and control parameters.
Comment everything. Future-you will thank past-you.
- Not Understanding Retargeting Options
I blindly used the default retargeting settings when trying to use Mixamo animations on a UE mannequin. The result? Floating feet, twisted spines, and sadness.
Lesson:
Before retargeting, match the bone hierarchy and proportions as closely as possible.
Use IK Retargeting in UE5 for more control and accuracy.
- Forgetting to Sync Animation With Gameplay Logic
I once had a cool jump animation, but forgot to time it with the actual jump force. So characters looked like they were jumping half a second late.
Lesson:
Sync animation with actual movement via Anim Notifies, Montage Sections, or direct Blueprint logic.
Test in-game constantly, not just in the animation preview.
I know everyone takes a different path when learning animation in Unreal. Have you made any animation-related mistakes that taught you something important? Or maybe you’ve discovered some clever workflow tricks that helped you speed things up?
Let’s trade stories — I’d love to hear how others here have learned and grown through animating in UE!