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Lesson 318 of 8805. Animation and Character RiggingFree lesson

Syncing Animation Groups for Footstep Precision

Learners will use sync groups to ensure that movement animations stay perfectly aligned during transitions between different speeds.

In this lesson, you will learn how to use Sync Groups to ensure that your character’s footsteps remain perfectly timed when transitioning between different movement speeds.

The Problem: Foot Sliding

When you use a Blend Space to transition from a walk to a run, Unreal Engine blends the poses based on your character's speed. However, because walks and runs have different gait timings—the run is faster, so the feet hit the ground more frequently—the blending can cause the character’s feet to "slide" across the floor during the transition. The animation system doesn't inherently know that the left foot landing in the walk cycle corresponds to the left foot landing in the run cycle.

Enter Sync Groups

A Sync Group acts as a common clock for multiple animations. By assigning your animations to a shared group (like "Locomotion"), you tell Unreal Engine to force the animations to track their internal playback position relative to one another.

To implement this:

  1. Open your Blend Space asset.
  2. In the Asset Details panel, locate the Animation Sync section.
  3. Set the Sync Group name to a custom label, such as Locomotion.
  4. Ensure that the individual animations within the Blend Space are set to the same group.

Once configured, Unreal Engine synchronizes the "time" of the animations. If the character is transitioning from a walk to a run, the engine will align the gait of the run cycle to match the current progress of the walk cycle, preventing the feet from stuttering or skipping beats.

Implementation Logic

You can further control this by utilizing markers. Inside your animation sequences, you can add Sync Markers—specifically Footstep notify-like markers—to the animation timeline. Unreal uses these to align the "Left Foot Down" event across your walk, jog, and run cycles. When you use a Sync Group, the system ensures that when the "Left Foot" marker hits in the walk animation, it aligns with the "Left Foot" marker in the run animation, making your transitions look smooth and grounded.

Key Takeaway: Sync Groups allow you to bridge disparate animation speeds by locking their playback position to a shared clock, ensuring that foot placement remains consistent and prevents sliding during transitions.