Text to Animation for Unreal Engine and Unity: MotionSmith, Rokoko, DeepMotion and More
Last updated 2026-11-02 · Written by the Cosindra team; see the disclosure below.
For Unreal Engine 5, MotionSmith turns one sentence into 4 takes on the UE5 Manny skeleton and exports an FBX with root motion that plays on Manny and Quinn with no retargeting, for 5 credits a prompt on a free start, and 10 of its gallery motions download free. For Unity, MotionSmith has no export yet, so use Rokoko (its free Starter plan includes text to motion, exported from Rokoko Studio as FBX on a skeleton you pick), DeepMotion SayMotion (a free Freemium plan for personal use, Starter from $9 a month billed yearly for commercial use) or Meshy (Text to Motion on its own characters, on a free plan whose models are CC BY 4.0). Cascadeur is a keyframe animation app whose free version saves only its own format, and Mixamo's free library offers ready-made clips rather than prompts.
Disclosure: we build MotionSmith. Facts about the other tools were read on their official pages on November 2, 2026 (Mixamo's on November 1, 2026), and this page says where each of them is the better pick, starting with Unity.
Is it free and what does it cost?
Cosindra is free to start with no card: the Starter plan gives 30 credits a month, eligible new accounts also get 50 one-time signup credits, and Starter includes one free download shared across products. Paid plans start at $9.99 a month (BYOK, 150 credits a month), and one-time credit packs cost $5 for 50 credits, $10 for 100 or $20 for 200, with credits that never expire. In MotionSmith a prompt costs 5 credits for all 4 takes, a failed prompt is refunded, and 10 gallery motions download free with any account. For the others: Rokoko's Starter plan is $0 and includes text to motion, with 5 clips a month imported into Rokoko Studio; Basic is $12 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly; DeepMotion SayMotion's Freemium plan is free with 3 credits and 1 download a month for personal use, and Starter is $15 a month, or $9 a month billed yearly, with a commercial license; Meshy's Free plan has 100 credits a month and licenses its models CC BY 4.0, adding an animation preset costs no credits, and Text to Motion costs credits; Cascadeur Free costs nothing but exports only its own .casc format and is for non-commercial use, and Cascadeur Indie is $19 a month, or $96 a year, with FBX and glTF export for revenue under $100,000 a year; Mixamo's own site offers "Sign Up for Free" (read November 1, 2026) (official pages, read November 2, 2026).
Official pages: Rokoko pricing, DeepMotion SayMotion pricing, Meshy pricing and credits, Cascadeur plans, Mixamo.
Which tool for which job
Unreal Engine 5
MotionSmith: an FBX on SK_Mannequin with root motion and the IK bones set, 4 takes per prompt, and the same take on your own character. MotionSmith
Unity
Rokoko, DeepMotion SayMotion or Meshy: each exports FBX that Unity imports onto a Humanoid character. MotionSmith has no Unity export yet. Rigging a character for Unity
Godot and Blender
MotionSmith exports a GLB on the Manny skeleton and base body for Blender 2.8 or later and Godot; SayMotion and Meshy export GLB too, and Rokoko FBX or BVH. Text to animation for UE5
| MotionSmith | Rokoko | DeepMotion SayMotion | Cascadeur | Mixamo library | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you get a clip | One sentence, 4 takes per prompt | A text prompt in Rokoko Create | A text prompt | Keyframes, with motion generation and physics tools | Pick from a ready-made library |
| Free plan (read November 2, 2026) | Free start; 10 gallery motions download free | Starter $0: text to motion, 5 Studio imports a month | Freemium: 3 credits and 1 download a month, personal use | Free: saves .casc only, non-commercial | Free with an Adobe account (read November 1, 2026) |
| Paid from | 5 credits a prompt; plans from $9.99 a month or credit packs | Basic, $10 a month billed yearly | Starter, $9 a month billed yearly | Indie, $96 a year | No paid tier |
| Into Unreal Engine 5 | FBX on SK_Mannequin with root motion; plays on Manny and Quinn as is | FBX on a skeleton you pick, UE5 Manny among them | FBX, GLB or BVH | FBX (Indie and up), and a live link to Unreal | FBX on the Mixamo rig; IK Retargeter for Manny |
| Into Unity | Not yet | FBX on a skeleton you pick | FBX | FBX (Indie and up) | FBX |
| Your own character | Plays each take on your uploaded character and exports an FBX on its skeleton | Import and retarget your character (Basic and up) | Up to 3 custom characters on Freemium | Rig and animate it in Cascadeur | Upload it to rig it on Mixamo |
Unreal Engine 5: the skeleton decides it
What makes a clip usable in Unreal is what arrives in the Content Browser: which skeleton it is on, whether the root carries the travel, and whether the feet stay planted. MotionSmith (ours) was built for exactly that: every take is an FBX on SK_Mannequin with root motion and the IK bones set, so it plays on Manny and Quinn from an Anim Montage with no IK Retargeter. Each prompt gives 4 takes to compare, ranked by how well they match your words, with foot contacts that keep the feet planted, and a prompt can also be a sequence of steps, a path you draw, or a continuation of a take.
Rokoko exports from Rokoko Studio onto a skeleton you pick, UE5 Manny among them, so it reaches the mannequin too; Rokoko says its text to motion gives the best results on idles and simple locomotion. SayMotion and Meshy export FBX on their own characters or a skeleton template (Mixamo is Meshy's default), which means an IK Retargeter pass before Manny animations meet them.
Unity: where the others are the better pick
MotionSmith has no Unity export today, so for a Unity project the honest answer is another tool. Rokoko's free Starter plan includes text to motion and exports FBX on a skeleton you pick; DeepMotion SayMotion exports FBX, GLB, BVH and MP4, with a personal-use Freemium plan and a commercial license from Starter; Meshy's Animate adds Text to Motion to a character rigged in Meshy and downloads FBX for Unity, Unreal or Blender. In Unity, import the FBX, set Animation Type to Humanoid and check the Avatar mapping, as Unity's manual describes for any humanoid file.
Cascadeur and Mixamo: not prompts, still worth knowing
Cascadeur is a keyframe animation app with motion generation, AutoPosing and AutoPhysics, for people who want to author and polish motion by hand; its free version saves only the .casc format and is for non-commercial use, and FBX and glTF export start at Indie. Mixamo's large library is free with an Adobe account; its clips are on the Mixamo rig, so Unreal needs the IK Retargeter for Manny, and the library only has the clips that already exist.
Honest limits
MotionSmith makes the body motion of one humanoid character from English prompts: no props, faces, cameras or two people interacting, and no Unity export yet. On Starter, the first of your own generations you download is free; More downloads come with a paid plan (from $9.99 a month for 150 credits) or a one-time credit pack ($5 for 50 credits, $10 for 100 or $20 for 200), whose credits never expire and which opens downloads for 15 to 30 days. Rokoko's free plan caps Studio imports at 5 clips a month, SayMotion's Freemium plan is for personal use, Meshy's free models are CC BY 4.0, and Cascadeur Free is non-commercial.
Who should pick what
MotionSmith
Your game is in Unreal Engine 5 and you want clips on the Manny skeleton with root motion, several takes per idea, and the same take on your own character.
Rokoko
You need text to motion for Unity or any engine today, free to start, on a skeleton you pick.
DeepMotion SayMotion
You want text to motion with FBX, GLB, BVH or a video preview, and a commercial license from its Starter plan.
Cascadeur
You animate by hand and want physics and posing help; plan for Indie if you need FBX or commercial use.
Mixamo
A common move from a free library is enough, and a retarget pass in Unreal is fine.
Free tools and guides for these jobs
- Text to animation for Unreal Engine 5: from one sentence to an FBX on Manny, step by step
- Mixamo alternative for Unreal Engine 5: clips on the Manny skeleton without the retargeting step
- Root motion animations in UE5: what root motion needs from the file and the Animation Blueprint
- Free FBX and GLB viewer: open any clip to see its skeleton, frame rate and length in your browser
Don’t take this page’s word for it: the galleries are real, unedited community output.
Common questions
Is it free and what does it cost?
Cosindra is free to start with no card: the Starter plan gives 30 credits a month, eligible new accounts also get 50 one-time signup credits, and Starter includes one free download shared across products. Paid plans start at $9.99 a month (BYOK, 150 credits a month), and one-time credit packs cost $5 for 50 credits, $10 for 100 or $20 for 200, with credits that never expire. In MotionSmith a prompt costs 5 credits for all 4 takes, a failed prompt is refunded, and 10 gallery motions download free with any account. For the others: Rokoko's Starter plan is $0 and includes text to motion, with 5 clips a month imported into Rokoko Studio; Basic is $12 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly; DeepMotion SayMotion's Freemium plan is free with 3 credits and 1 download a month for personal use, and Starter is $15 a month, or $9 a month billed yearly, with a commercial license; Meshy's Free plan has 100 credits a month and licenses its models CC BY 4.0, adding an animation preset costs no credits, and Text to Motion costs credits; Cascadeur Free costs nothing but exports only its own .casc format and is for non-commercial use, and Cascadeur Indie is $19 a month, or $96 a year, with FBX and glTF export for revenue under $100,000 a year; Mixamo's own site offers "Sign Up for Free" (read November 1, 2026) (official pages, read November 2, 2026).
Is there a free text to animation tool for Unity?
Yes. Rokoko's free Starter plan includes text to motion, with 5 clips a month imported into Rokoko Studio for export, and DeepMotion SayMotion has a free Freemium plan for personal use. Meshy's free plan has 100 credits a month, and its Text to Motion costs credits. MotionSmith has no Unity export yet.
Can MotionSmith export animations for Unity?
Not yet. MotionSmith exports an FBX on the UE5 Manny skeleton for Unreal, an FBX on your own character's skeleton, a GLB for Blender and Godot, and a BVH. Unity comes later.
Which text to animation tool gives root motion on the UE5 mannequin?
MotionSmith exports every take as an FBX on SK_Mannequin with root motion and the IK bones set. Rokoko can export onto a UE5 Manny skeleton from Rokoko Studio; check its root settings for your clip.
Can I use these animations in a commercial game?
MotionSmith: yes, you own the motions, made by NVIDIA Kimodo under the NVIDIA Open Model License, which allows commercial use. SayMotion's Freemium plan is licensed for personal use and Starter for commercial use; Cascadeur Free is non-commercial; Meshy's Free plan models are CC BY 4.0. Check each license before you ship.
Is Cosindra free, and what does MotionSmith cost?
Yes, you can start free with no card. The Starter plan gives 30 credits every month, and eligible new accounts also get 50 one-time signup credits. Watching the gallery is free, and 10 gallery motions download free with any account. A prompt costs 5 credits for all 4 takes and a failed one is refunded, so the 80 credits of a new account's first month cover 16 prompts. On Starter, the first of your own generations you download is free. More downloads come with a paid plan (from $9.99 a month for 150 credits) or a one-time credit pack ($5 for 50 credits, $10 for 100 or $20 for 200), whose credits never expire and which opens downloads for 15 to 30 days.
Official sources
- Rokoko pricing
- Rokoko Create: text to motion, the 5 Studio imports on the free plan
- Rokoko Vision 3.0: FBX or BVH from Studio on UE5 Manny, HIK or Mixamo skeletons
- DeepMotion SayMotion pricing
- DeepMotion SayMotion: FBX, GLB, BVH and MP4 exports
- Meshy pricing and credits
- Meshy docs: Animate, Text to Motion and the skeleton template
- Cascadeur plans
- Cascadeur: motion generation, AutoPhysics, Unreal live link
- Mixamo
- Unity manual: importing a humanoid and its Avatar
Disclosure: this page is written and maintained by the team behind Cosindra, which appears in the comparison. Competitor capabilities and pricing are described as of the last-updated date above and change over time; always verify on the vendor’s own site. Spotted something outdated or unfair? Tell us and we’ll fix it.