Quick answer: Set a non-zero Blend Out time in the montage’s asset settings. A blend out also won’t play if you Stop the montage with 0 blend time, or if it’s interrupted.
An attack montage snaps back to idle the instant it ends — no smooth blend. The montage’s Blend Out time is 0, or the code stops it abruptly.
Montage Blend Settings
Open the montage asset. In the details panel:
- Blend In — time to blend into the montage.
- Blend Out — time to blend back to the underlying pose at the end. Set this to ~0.2–0.3s.
- Blend Out Trigger Time — -1 means blend out starts so it finishes exactly at montage end. A positive value starts it earlier.
Don't Stop With Zero Blend
// hard cut:
AnimInstance->Montage_Stop(0.0f, Montage);
// blended stop:
AnimInstance->Montage_Stop(0.25f, Montage);Passing 0 as the blend-out time to Montage_Stop overrides the asset setting with an instant cut.
Interruption Kills Blend Out
If another montage on the same slot starts, or the montage is interrupted, the natural blend-out may be skipped in favor of the new montage’s blend-in. That’s usually correct — but if you wanted a blend-out, sequence them.
Slot Check
The montage’s slot must exist in the Anim Blueprint’s graph (a Slot node). Without the slot wired into the pose pipeline, montage playback — including blends — behaves unpredictably.
Verifying
Play the attack. It blends smoothly back to locomotion at the end. Interrupting it mid-way blends into the next action cleanly.
“Blend Out needs a non-zero time in the asset and a non-zero stop blend in code.”
For combo systems, tune Blend Out Trigger Time so the next attack’s blend-in overlaps the previous blend-out — that overlap is what makes combos feel fluid.