Blendspace backwards animations

Wondering if you could help,

Me and a friend are currently creating a character within UE4, he is doing Animation i am doing the engine work including Blueprint.

We have a run forward, run left, run right, run backwards. When blending this together, the functionality is fine… the character moves in a full 360 degrees… However the left and right backwards strafe looks terrible… Running left and right diagonally looks fine, however backwards his feet are misplaced and feet and knees bend the opposite way to which he is moving.

If you invert this the backwards strafe works fine however forwards does not… I am using the blendspace that is used is common examples with no changes other than adding in animation. Is there something i can do in the Locomotion tree to fix this? Or does the animation need to follow specifics rules when animating left/right.

If you need any pictures/videos from me please let me know.

Regards,

I think I answered my own question…

Previously I had my Direction in my Blendspace using only 4 directions (4 animations, Forward, Back, Left and right) so now i have created 8 directions (new animation every 45 degrees), and added 2 backwards run animations for Backwards Run diagonal left and right. This has solved it. I was first annoyed that when running left or right and going backwards into a diagonal direction the legs twist alot… However i used Outlast as a reference and it appears the character also does it.

I am happy with the result. If anyone wants anymore information about feel free to ask me, Ill tell you what i know.

Regards.

May I ask how you calculated speed and direction for the float variables