Unreal Engine 5.1 Retargeted Animation From Manny to Mixamo Model Causes Single Animation Sequence To Rotate 90*

Question

I apologize if this has been asked before. I tried searching for this first and nothing is coming up. I'm pretty new to Unreal Engine 5.1 so this might be something I'm doing as well.

I've been exploring animation retargeting in unreal and have tried following the steps we learned in class using one of the models from mixamo.com. Everything appears to work fine at the start and I can get the actual IK and IKR objects working just fine. However when I try to export the animations either from the IKR object or by right clicking the ABP object for the source mesh one and only one of the animation sequences rotates 90*. It is always the same animation (the Land animation sequence) and I'm not sure how to go about fixing it.

Also tried looking on google and turned up nothing.

I'm hoping this is some stupid newb mistake that is easy to fix or maybe there's something I'm overlooking. Any help is greatly appreciated and I will continue trying to fix the problem myself as well and will post if I fix it

Tried retargeting using the following steps

1. Create an IK_Object for the model you wish to project your animations on with chains for each. Mine looked like the following IK_Remy
2. Repeat step 1 for the model you wish to source animations from. Mine looked like the following IK_Manny
3. Create an IKR_Object Linking the two together, here's what mine looked like IKR_Remy
4. Find the ABP for your source model, right click, and select "Retarget Animation Assets->Duplicate and Retarget Animation Assets". Here's what I'm selecting for that Retarget Dialog

When I do the following most of the animation sequences for "Manny" export just fine. However the "Land" animation flips for some reason (see image below)

Exported Animation Images

Even stranger, when I preview the MM_Land animation in my IKR object it looks fine i.e. not rotated. However, if I try to export the animation from the IKR object the same thing happens i.e. it rotates 90*. I would expect this to be a case of WYSIWYG where if it's working in the preview it would export correctly. However that apparently is not the case

Also I tried modifying the animation sequence manually but it won't let me. If I try to rotate the model in the animation sequence and save it, once I close the sequence it's re-rotated and the changes do not persist.

I can export the sequence as a new sequence, modify it, and save it, and then rename it as my exported "Land" animation to hard force it and it at least looks normal. However when I actually play the game and jump, when the land animation it still flips sideways and in addition causes the character to scale and warp for a second which makes me think there's something going on here that I don't know enough to fix. Really hoping someone with more experience in Unreal Engine can help.

EDIT: Fixed Image Descriptions

Answer 1

I have been having the same issue and haven't been able to find any solutions online either. After a lot of trial and error and determining it likely had to do with the root bone during the retarget I did finally manage to find something that worked for me.

Try opening up your retargeted landing animation (mine was the retargeted version of MM_Land) and find the Root Motion section. Check "EnableRootMotion" and change the Root Motion Root Lock dropdown menu to "Zero". I don't 100% understand why this solved my issue but my character now lands correctly.

I hope this solves your issue as well!

Answer 2

I can confirm that this is an issue - I'm seeing the same behaviour. I haven't managed to fix it yet, but my suspicion is that it's due to scaling - in my instance, I have had to scale up my custom character by around 2.5 times to replicate the scale of the default mannequin. Did you scale your custom character at all?