Unreal Engine 5.3: Motion Matching Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create motion matching in Unreal Engine 5.3 with AI-generated animation. I'll show how to install the Motorica plugin and how to use Blender to upload curves to generate animation. We'll create a motion matching character, add animations to the database, enable debug trajectory, retarget animations, etc.
You can skip the Motorica Plugin part if you don't want to generate your own animation.
Animations Asset: drive.google.com/file/d/1izrk...
Project Download: / project-file-5-3-10160...
Dance Card fbx curves: drive.google.com/file/d/1ISvX...
Motorica Documentation: mostudiodocs.pages.dev/get-st...
Guide for Animation Sourcing: docs.google.com/document/d/11...
Motorica Blender: static1.squarespace.com/stati...
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel for more Unreal Engine tutorials. Thanks for watching!
Intro: (0:00)
Motorica Plugin: (2:23)
Motion Matching Character: (18:15)
Animations Database: (25:00)
Adjust Motion Database Config: (29:41)
Retarget Animation to UE5 Mannequin: (33:43)
Outro: (34:37)

[@CodeCraftGamesOfficial]

For some reasons there are barely any youtube tutorials for this thanks alot!

[@jourverse]

You're welcome.

[@3cgames946]

@@jourverse Hi, I like what you are doing, I followed the tutorial until 17 minutes 10, I am stuck at this place, I import the animation on the Motorica skeleton and when I visualize the animation, there is nothing, neither animation nor mesh. Can you explain to me how to resolve the problem and where I must have gone wrong in the import?

[@jamesonvparker]

I’m so grateful for you doing this. So many on the Motorica discord have been asking for help understanding this process a little better. I appreciate the detailed examples.

[@jourverse]

I'm really glad that you liked this tutorial. Thank you for continuing to support me.

[@timruijs3397]

finally, motion matching explained clearly. thank you so much.

[@officialjmweh120m3]

This is better than any tutorials ❤ hope you keep an update on it love you❤

[@jourverse]

Thank you. I'll keep you updated as I learn more about the motion matching system.

[@Tanek_Woo]

Thanks man! Nice Tutorial!

[@masuk3d]

Please do another motion matching once 5.4 is out properly with sample project. thanks!

[@starfieldcommand]

Amazing video! thanks !

[@jourverse]

Thank you.

[@Al_Keatinge]

Amazing Thanks so much!

[@gekcon86]

i love this tutorial so much, very much thanch you

[@jourverse]

Thank you for watching.

[@gekcon86]

@@jourverse no problem just the tutorial was amazing 🤩

[@gekcon86]

@@jourverse also how to add jumping

[@phantasywavestudios]

Super good! Will try some of these steps! How did you make that Card Dance? When i do the dance in blender the thing doesnt look that good 😂😂

[@AlyrioNeto]

Please, how to manage different velocities like Walking, Running and Sprinting? Also how to manage Crouch stance?

[@user-kb2qz3gj6k]

Thank you Bro !!

[@jourverse]

You’re welcome.

[@MomenElwan]

thnx alot bro ... will try it on my system ;)

[@jourverse]

You're welcome.

[@sharukhrahman7925]

Thank you for the videos🎉🎉.. Can you make a tutorial for motorcycle driving?

[@randagio95]

Hi, it's possible to create a video on how to make the character hide inside a closet while setting up the animation for entering and exiting.

[@mickwreacker74]

Before the movement begins, I have a slight time delay + the actor does not always run where I am looking. It moves quite slowly, how to fix it? Takes a long time to turn

[@BluntmanAndChronic]

i will jumping on this immediately after I get through the tank tutorial. thanks legend.

[@jourverse]

You're welcome.

[@quantumneuralnetworking4765]

How can this be used for Ai controller based characters ? Ie randomly searching locations or randomly moving between way points?

[@ebiscoitonaobolacha3489]

Caralho que foda cara, ajuda muito

[@jhonysteak5512]

Hello, I would like to replace the mannequin with one of my Blender creations, I have mastered rigging but I am a beginner in Ue5, have you made a video on the issue? I searched a bit but couldn't find it.

[@Joey-dev]

Hi when i try to import your animations, it shows "Mesh contains the root bone in the description, but animation does not contain that bone track. The animation data should contain at least root bone track" error, is there any way to fix this? Thanks !

[@fakedownboys7547]

Once you tried to import the .fbx animation, on that tab with the skeletons press the Gear button, choose "Show Engine Content", then you will see the motorica skeleton there, choose it

[@arthurdsjrjbr]

Hello, thanks for the vid, Is it possible to import our own animation and just rely on Motorica solely to make the adjustments to it based on the motion?

[@jourverse]

It isn't possible to import your own animation style and adjust using Motorica.

[@jamesonvparker]

I sat down to follow along with your tutorial today. I have a question. First, thank you for creating the animation assets. I want to create the same collection of animations but with a different style from motorica. Does that mean I'll need to generate each animation through Blender, then rename the armature root to reference, and export every necessary animation all over again? Or is there a way to make use of all the trajectories you've created, and just use them all to regenerate with a different motorica style, all in one go?

[@jourverse]

I mostly use the Motorica plugin's preset mode in Unreal Engine for generating short animations with 4 seconds duration. When I need longer animations and ones with simple movements, like idle or running straight for 10 seconds, I switch to the keyframe mode in the plugin. Only a few animations that use dance card are generated using Blender's curve upload to the Motorica website. This is because it's easier for me to keyframe the curve in Blender, and I couldn't upload custom curve from blender using the plugin. These Blender-made animations are stored in the 'DanceCard' folder in UnrealEngine, all named 'Export' since they were exported from Blender.

[@jourverse]

Here are all the Blender curves that I used. Besides these, you need to regenerate them inside Unreal Engine using a similar name to the animation's name. For example, if the animation is named 'Circle', the preset type should also be 'Circle', and the number after the name mostly indicates the degree of the animation. I typically use a speed of 4m/s for running animations. Experiment with it; you might get easier to control and smooth transition movements than mine. drive.google.com/file/d/1ISvXbh7IjYBJaB5jVvARS8hcmNUgSmef/view?usp=sharing

[@aindroie7728]

Is it good in multiplayer

[@JawadAnzour]

Hello , thank you for your tutorial, i have a question, Can i change the mesh of the character like put m'y own character and still get the motion matching ?

[@jourverse]

It is depend on your character skeleton. If your character have the same skeleton as unreal engine mannequin. You can retarget these animations to unreal engine mannequin and use with your character.

[@JawadAnzour]

@@jourverse ah ok thank you so much , and how to get the same skeleton , like by rename it ?

[@jourverse]

@@JawadAnzour use the same rig , bone hierarchy, same names.

[@asdfman7007]

awesome video, this is really great

[@musiczen7359]

How do you get access to the website? I have been waiting for days to receive an email.

[@camiloduartef]

Hey thanks for the tutorial !! prety nice, sadly i am stuck in this error "Mesh contains the root bone in the description, but animation does not contain that bone track. The animation data should contain at least root bone track" tyring to import the motions. thanks !!

[@jourverse]

This error can happen when you set the wrong skeletal mesh.

[@camiloduartef]

@@jourverse and thats coming from the plugin ? i was trying to use one skeleton, from mixamo

[@jourverse]

@@camiloduartef Choose Motorica skeleton to import ,after that retarget to any skeleton that you want.

[@cccgkmk]

content browser... setting-> show plugin content 아닐까요?

[@MarcBourdeau]

After installing the Plugin in the plugins folder, I can't seem to find Motorica in the list after relaunch

[@jourverse]

This document may help you. mostudiodocs.pages.dev/get-started/installing/

[@MarcBourdeau]

@@jourverse Thank you, actually i installed it in the 5.4 by accident. so no wonder hahaha. Sadly, can't pass the motorica launch, as Unreal crashes every time. I'll have to wait for my new GPU. I'll keep following you for more stuff tho. Keep the good work

[@hernanramirez1120]

ugh very good friend!! Will you know how to apply it with metahuman? thanks for everything, greetings from Argentina

[@jourverse]

You need to retarget animation from Motorica Skeleton to Metahuman skeleton use RTG_metahuman_MoStudio for IK Retargeter. And create new animation blueprint, database config, database that use metahuman skeleton. kzbin.info3tZlb98ABmM?si=tqPzuNXSso9uCt17 (At 41:54) in this video, you can see many skeletons that we can retarget, including Metahuman.

[@azzeddindouakha3403]

good toturial but results are bad character keeps stopping and running acting crazy

[@Skystudio42]

😂😂

[@gurei_augusto]

Hi, I became your Patreon supporter, really enjoying your content, but I need a little help. In this case, regarding the video, when I run the project, I notice there are some noticeable stutters in the movement, especially when the character is running. I even noticed a bit of it in your video as well. Is it possible to fix this? Please help me, sorry my bad english

[@jourverse]

For now, I still can't figure out how to get the best results from motion matching. Try experimenting with the settings in the animation blueprint's motion matching node and motion matching database config. We need to balance between smooth animation and the responsiveness of the movement. I noticed that when I increase the blend value in the motion matching node of the animation blueprint, the character becomes too unresponsive. When Epic releases the sample project, I'll take a look at their settings. Thank you for your support.

[@NKRMUSIC]

@@jourverse change the flags, I had the same problem lol

[@NKRMUSIC]

@@jourverse I find that the flags are better like this: image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2024/15/3/1712747153-image.png

[@AlyrioNeto]

It’s fantastic!

[@AndroChimera]

i need your help, i'm trying to recreate these animations you provided but with the zombie style so i can make the same locomotion you did but with zombie animations, but the problem is; when i try to import your animations into my unreal in order to open them in the plugin so i can try and recreate than as close as possible (but with the zombie style) for some reason in that part where i have chose the mostudio skeleton it simply doesn't show up, there's no mostudio skeleton on my unreal '-' what am i doing wrong? can you help me understand what i'm doing wrong? or would you be kind to make these same animations but with the zombie style? you would be helping me a lot, but if it's too much work don't worry about it (you already done enough making this tutorial) i just don't understand why there's no mostudio skeleton for me to choose when importing...also can i talk to you? do you have discord?

[@jourverse]

You need to install the Motorica plugin to Unreal Engine 5.3 and set up your Motorica account in the settings to get the Motorica Skeleton. Then, import those animations. To create a zombie style, you need to regenerate all animations one by one.

[@jourverse]

I mostly use the Motorica plugin's preset mode in Unreal Engine for generating short animations with 4 seconds duration. When I need longer animations and ones with simple movements, like idle or running straight for 10 seconds, I switch to the keyframe mode in the plugin. Only a few animations that use dance card are generated using Blender's curve upload to the Motorica website. This is because it's easier for me to keyframe the curve in Blender, and I couldn't upload custom curve from blender using the plugin. These Blender-made animations are stored in the 'DanceCard' folder in UnrealEngine, all named 'Export' since they were exported from Blender.

[@AndroChimera]

@@jourverse it's already installed and its active on my unreal, also i'm using the correct version but still no "mostudio skeleton" is available for me when importing your animations T-T

[@AndroChimera]

@@jourverse yep i figured that part out, my only problem is that the correct skeleton doesn't appear in my unreal, and it's all correctly installed.

[@spr4yz69]

where did you get the skeleton?

[@jourverse]

From Motorica plugin.

[@larrystocrate]

Hi can this work on Unreal Engine 5.2?

[@jourverse]

The motion matching node and trajectory in UE5.2 differ from those in UE5.3. While this functionality will work in UE5.2, slight modifications are necessary. I recommend to follow tutorial tailored for UE5.2 usage.

[@bobboboowee]

Thank you for this detailed tutorial, indeed the only helpful tutorial so far! Have you tried this on a metahuman character?

[@xshaide]

Is the movement replicated?

[@jourverse]

I suppose it's replicated because Epic has already employed motion matching in Fortnite.

[@xshaide]

@@jourverse omg of course. I totally forgot lmao

[@azzeddindouakha3403]

motorica not working on 5.4

[@jourverse]

The plugin has not yet been released in 5.4.

[@brocscogmyre5592]

To much going away from UE and signing up here and there, I'd rather wait to see what 5.4 has to offer

[@Riiickv]

who the f tilts that much when running

[@lcizzlelc]

Depends on how many drinks I've had.