UE 5.4 Retargeting Manny Animations to a Custom Character –Fixes if not working

Version 1.1

Working notes for taking a custom skeletal mesh (non-Manny proportions, no ik_foot_* bones) and getting the third-person locomotion set running on it.

1. Build the IK Rig manually

The Auto Retargeter may not produce a usable IK Rig for a custom skeleton. When you Rclick Mannys ABP and choose Retarget Animations. So Build it by hand.

1. Create an IK Rig from your skeletal mesh.
2. Set hips as the Retarget Root.
3. Run Auto create Retarget chains, then fix the results — auto misses bones in the leg chain.
4. Add the Spine chain manually; auto does not create it.
5. Run Auto create IK.
6. Add Full Body IK bone settings to hips.

Clearing “Missing root bone” on the FBIK solver

There is no Root Bone field in the solver’s Details panel. Instead:

• Select the solver in the Solver Stack.
• Right-click the bone in the Hierarchy → Set Root Bone on Selected Solver.

2. Build the Retargeter

1. Create an RTG_ Retargeter using the Manny IK Rig as source and your IK Rig as target.
2. If necessary set the target pose – Manually rotate the arms away from the sides if the character is wide –otherwise they clip the body.

3. Retarget the animations

Go back to ABP_Manny → right-click → Retarget Animations.

• Use your own RTG_ retargeter, not auto mode.
• This also generates the blend spaces and anim blueprints, (which is why it’s worth doing from here rather than retargeting sequences inside RTG_ retargeter)

4. Move the Control Rig onto the new character

1. Duplicate CR_Mannequin_BasicFootIK — not CR_Mannequin_Body. Name it e.g. CR_NEWche_FootIK.
2. Open it. Close the Rig Hierarchy stack. Turn off Auto Compile.
3. Right-click root → Refresh (not Import Hierarchy) → choose the new skeletal mesh.
   • Refresh rebuilds the existing hierarchy and keeps controls/nulls mapped. Import creates a fresh one and loses that.
4. Recompile manually.
5. Inside the rig, rename the bone references to match the bones actually on the new skeleton.
6. In the ABP, set Control Rig Class to the duplicate.

Bone naming note

If the skeleton has no separate ik_foot_* bones, pointing the IK node at foot_l works fine. This differs from stock Manny, where ik_foot_l is a separate goal bone parented under ik_foot_root. Only safe because the rig is custom-built for this one character — an imported anim or rig expecting Manny’s full IK bone set will break it.

5. Fix: character runs ahead of the capsule / snaps back

Symptom: the mesh travels forward faster than the capsule, then jumps back in space on the loop.

If root motion is already disabled everywhere and it still happens, the root bone has translation keys baked in.

Fix: in the IK Retargeter, set Root Settings → Translation Alpha → 0, then re-export the animations.

Only re-export the ones where the character travels — walk, jog, run, sprint. Compare against the standard Manny versions of the same anims to confirm the root behaviour matches before committing.

Quick reference