System selector

Situation	Prefer	Reason
Large realistic locomotion set with dense transitions	Motion Matching	search scales with compatible data coverage
Small/stylized moveset with deliberate states	State Machine/Blend Space	lower data/tooling cost, direct control
One-off attack, dodge, interaction, reload	Montage	explicit action lifecycle/sections/notifies
Traversal entry needs contextual pose selection	Pose Search/Motion Match query plus action system	choose a compatible entry, then own the action
Missing directional/speed coverage	Author/retarget data first	weights cannot select absent motion

Adoption gates:

• The animation set covers the movement model's speed and direction envelope.
• Starts, stops, pivots, loops, and transitions have valid selectable ranges.
• The team can curate schemas/databases and use Rewind Debugger.
• Memory and runtime search cost fit target platforms.
• Root-motion versus capsule-driven intent is explicit.

Start with one locomotion mode and a representative test map. Do not migrate every character state before the first database proves better than the existing system under real input.