How To Loop Animation | Tips & Tutorials For The Perfect Loop

Creating a seamless looping animation can be tricky - but with the right techniques and tools, it can be easy to achieve a perfect loop that looks great and functions smoothly. We'll walk you through three different ways to loop your animation and show you how to troubleshoot any potential problems.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

What are animation loops
How animation loops work
How to create loopable mocap clips in Rokoko Studio Preview
How to loop animations in Unity and Unreal Engine

This is a refreshed 2025 version of our original guide.

What is an animation loop?

An animation loop is a continuous sequence of animation frames that repeat endlessly. By this definition, even a GIF can be considered a looping animation. When working in 3D or 2D animation, loops are often used to create the illusion of infinite motion, such as:

A character walk cycle or run cycle
An idle animation (breathing, shifting weight, fidgeting)
Environmental motion like wind-blown trees or flickering candles
The hands of a clock ticking around to show the passage of time

Above is an example of a looped character walk.

A typical loop (and one that many animators start with) is the walk cycle. It consists of frames showing a character taking a step forward, shifting their weight back, and returning to their original position. Looping this motion sequence creates the illusion that the character is walking in place as if they were on a treadmill.

This animation sequence will often be used during productions to keep a character’s walk consistent and save animators from repeating work. Animation loops can be created using traditional animation techniques or computer-generated animation.

Who uses animation loops?

Game developers

The most common use of animation loops is in game development. In a game, each character will have a set of animation loops that can blend to create a controllable character. For example, a walk cycle might blend with a jump cycle at specific frames so that a play can direct their character as intuitively as possible.

Filmmakers, VFX, and Animators

Filmmakers might also use animation loops but will do so in a much less obvious fashion. For motion to appear realistic and avoid the uncanny valley effect, people and objects cannot loop perfectly several times. The human brain is so attuned to recognizing motion patterns that it’ll feel somehow ‘off’ if a character repeats their movements robotically with no deviation.

Game and film animators frequently use animation loops to give inanimate objects perpetual motion. For example, if an animated object such as a candle’s lit wick needs to flicker and move, a short loop cycle with three different key shapes would be a good way to get the job done.

Can you see how the animator has looped the frames for the candle flicker?

What makes a continuous loop perfect?

A seamless loop can be considered ‘perfect’ when there is no frame exactly the same (e.g., the first and last keyframes are just slightly different), and the motion itself is smooth and unjarring. You can spot a bad loop if there’s a strange flick or jump in movement at any point. Loops can be of different lengths for different purposes.

A perfect seamless loop usually has three things:

Matching start and end poses
- The first and last frames are nearly identical in pose and position
- The character’s root position and rotation also match (or change at a constant rate if you want root-motion movement)
Smooth motion curves
- Animation curves (in your graph editor) don’t spike or flatten at the loop point
- There are no sudden changes in velocity when the clip restarts
No visual “pop” at the cut
- The loop point should be invisible at normal playback speed
- If you step frame-by-frame at the join and it still looks okay, you’re in a good place

You’ll generally want the loop to be as short as possible for game loops on video game characters to accommodate the required motion switches easily. However, if realism is more important than functionality, you’d either want to make a longer loop (for more motion variation) or code in some minor deviances at random intervals.

A simple design for your character will also make loop animation easier, whereas a different style might make it more time-consuming.

How to make loops in Rokoko Studio Preview

Rokoko Studio Preview is the next evolution of Rokoko Studio: a lightweight platform that includes Studio software newest features. It’s available on Studio Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans (or a free trial), and currently only works with recordings from Rokoko Studio.

Studio Preview includes loopable segments feature that help you build clean, natural-looking loops without wrestling endlessly with curves.

Step 1: Import your motion capture data

Here is how to get started in Studio Preview:

Install Studio Preview here, if you haven’t already
Access your existing motion capture clips from Rokoko Studio
Or you can generate motion clips directly in Studio Preview using Text-to-Motion

Step 2: Clean up and trim the take

Before creating a loop:

Trim the start and end so the performance begins and ends on stable poses (e.g., both feet flat, neutral idle, etc.).
Use smoothing filters to reduce jitter or sensor noise, but avoid over-smoothing which can make motion feel floaty.
Make sure the character isn’t sliding or drifting in unexpected ways.

Focus on one main action per clip (e.g., “walk in-place” vs “walk forward”).

Step 3: Create a loopable segment in the timeline

In Studio Preview’s timeline, you can create a loop segment over the part of the clip you want to repeat.

Play the clip and visually find a cycle: for example, from right foot contact to the next right foot contact.
Mark the start and end of that cycle by creating a segment over this range.
Open the segment’s settings and enable the Magic Loop

Step 4: Adjust loop options

In the loop segment settings, pay attention to options like:

Start from origin – Resets the character’s root position so the loop plays “on the spot” (ideal for in-place walks and idles).
Align motion to axis – Keeps the character facing a consistent direction (very useful for forward-running loops).
Close loop / Magic Loop options – Minor corrections that distribute the difference between first and last frames over the entire clip, smoothing out the join.

Tip: If you’re using smoothing segments and loops at the same time and get weird sliding or spinning, try reducing or removing smoothing on that section.

Step 5: Preview and polish the loop

Loop playback over your segment repeatedly.
Watch the hands, feet, head, and root at the loop point.
If something “pops,” slightly adjust:
- The segment in/out points
- The smoothing strength
- The Magic Loop / close loop settings
- When it feels seamless, export your clip as FBX (or a format your target tool supports) for Unity, Unreal, Blender, etc. by right-clicking on the looping segment.

Making an animation loop in game engines (Unity & Unreal)

Unreal Engine and Unity are the two giants of the game software industry. You can use either of these programs to create your loops quickly and efficiently, as they deal with character animation loops in great detail.

Unity

In Unity, you usually:

Import your FBX with the looped animation
Mark the Animation Clip as looping in the clip/import settings (so it restarts automatically)
Use that clip inside an Animator Controller (for example as an idle, walk, or run state) and let Unity blend between states as the game runs

If you’d like to learn more about animation loops in Unity, check out this Ultimate Guide to Character Animation In Unity. It's a fantastic guide if you’re coming into Unity for the first time from another 3D program. You’ll also find some excellent resources for total beginners, along with free project files.

Unreal Engine

In Unreal Engine 5, the building blocks are:

An Animation Sequence asset that contains your loop
An Animation Blueprint (and optionally Blend Spaces) that decides when that loop should play

At a high level, you:

Import the animation as an Animation Sequence
Enable looping for that sequence in the animation editor
Use it inside an Animation Blueprint state (idle, walk, run, etc.), or in a Level Sequence if you’re making cinematics

Check out the tutorial below to learn how to loop character animation and get those characters to move according to keyboard inputs.

How to record animation loops in other animation programs

Virtually every single animation software will have some kind of looping tool available. If you’re manually animating with keyframes instead of using motion capture or a pre-recorded asset, it might take you a bit longer to get the perfect loop. Here are some great community resources explaining how to loop animation in various tools:

We’ve also got some great resources on our blog if you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of game animation and motion capture.

Frequently asked questions

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Tutorial: How To Loop Animation & Make the Perfect Loop (2025 Update)

What is an animation loop?