Level Up: Learning Animation in UE5

This is not a tutorial - it’s documentation of growth.

As a Generalist Game Designer, I’m always looking to expand my toolkit. Part of my ongoing Level Up Devlog series, this entry is focused on my recent dive into Animation Montages within UE5.

I’ve worked on everything from Narrative Design to UI systems, but animation logic is a space I’ve wanted to understand better so I can collaborate more fluently with animators and engineers.

🎓 What I Learned

Using a combo of Mixamo animations and UE5’s systems, I implemented:

  • Idle, Run, Sprint cycles

  • Rolling and Jumping

  • Crouch and Crouch-Walking

  • Two Dancing animations (because why not? )

  • Locomotion

  • Notify States

  • Blend Spaces

  • Rooted Animations

  • State Aliases and Transitions

  • Animation Slots and Sections

This process gave me solid understanding of how movement states communicate with each other, how I can incorporate multiple animations into one Montage and that can be used for combo animations.

🧠 Problems I Solved

Every step was a small puzzle, here’s what I untangled:

  • Fixed rolling while jumping by rooting animations

  • Corrected non-looping animation cycles

  • Solved sliding bugs during the animation

  • Cleaned up animation blending glitches

  • Blended transitions between movement and dancing

  • Synced crouch-walking and sprinting states with proper blends

Each fix taught me something new like; how much I can manipulate the animation, systems thinking and data structuring within Unreal.

🎯What’s Next on My Radar

Still hungry to learn more:

  • Aim Offsets

  • Motion Warping

  • Clean Sit/Stand transitions

  • In-engine animation tweaks

  • Layered blend per bone for combat while moving

Feel free to suggest any more material for me to further enhance my knowledge in Animation within Unreal Engine 5! I would really appreciate it. 🙏