UAnimInstance::UpdateAnimation

function Engine Since 4.0

#include "Animation/AnimInstance.h"

Access: public Specifiers: ENGINE_APIvirtual

Description

Main entry point for the game-thread animation update. Advances state machines, evaluates transition rules, and calls NativeUpdateAnimation and BlueprintUpdateAnimation. Called automatically each frame by the skeletal mesh component.

Caveats & Gotchas

• Do not call this directly — the skeletal mesh component's tick drives it. If you need to inject custom update logic, override NativeUpdateAnimation instead.
• This runs on the game thread. The parallel update (ParallelUpdateAnimation) runs separately on a worker thread after this completes. Variables read during the parallel phase should be set here.

Signature

ENGINE_API virtual void UpdateAnimation(float DeltaSeconds, bool bNeedsValidRootMotion);

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
DeltaSeconds	float	Time elapsed since the last animation update.	—
bNeedsValidRootMotion	bool	Whether the caller requires valid root motion data this frame.	—

Return Type

void

Example

Typical lifecycle (no direct call needed) C++

// UpdateAnimation is called automatically. Override NativeUpdateAnimation instead:
void UMyAnimInstance::NativeUpdateAnimation(float DeltaSeconds)
{
    Super::NativeUpdateAnimation(DeltaSeconds);
    Speed = GetOwningComponent()->GetComponentVelocity().Size();
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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