Why My First Animation Blueprint Didn’t Work in Unreal Engine

Source: Dev.to

Importing Mesh and Animations

I first created a folder for the character mesh and imported the skeletal mesh there. Afterwards I added an Animations folder and imported the following animation assets:

• Idle
• Walk
• Run
• Jump

Note: When importing animations you must have the correct skeletal mesh selected, otherwise the animations won’t bind properly.

Import the mesh first, animations later

Getting the mesh into the project before the animation assets ensures the skeleton reference is established, preventing mismatched animation data.

Creating the Animation Blueprint

Using the character’s skeletal mesh I created an Animation Blueprint. Inside the blueprint I added a State Machine and connected it to the Final Animation Pose node.

Adding a State Machine

The state machine contains three primary states:

• Idle
• Walk
• Run

and a separate Jump state for aerial movement.

What Confused Me

The transition logic between states was the biggest source of confusion. I wasn’t sure how Unreal decides when to switch to the Jump state or return to Idle.

Detecting Falling

The solution was to use the following node chain:

Try Get Pawn Owner → Get Movement Component → Is Falling

I stored the result in a Boolean variable and referenced that variable in the state‑transition rules. This made the jump logic work as expected.

Takeaways

• Animation Blueprints control how the character moves and reacts.
• State machines may look complex, but the underlying logic is straightforward once the transition conditions are defined.
• Import the mesh first, then the animations, to avoid skeletal mismatches.
• Using the pawn’s movement component to detect “Is Falling” is an effective way to drive jump transitions.

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If you’re also learning game development, what was the first thing that confused you when you started?

See you in the next post 🎮🚀