Root Motion is a technical term that is extremely important in rendering and optimizing game graphics (technical art). A mechanism that reads the movement speed and trajectory of forward movement, jumps, etc. recorded in the 3D character's animation data itself, and automatically synchronizes it with the movement of the physical character collider in the game.
An example in the real world: Real walking behavior that automatically kicks the ground according to the stride length and pitch of your feet
Unlike a radio-controlled car (scripted movement), the robot stops pulling at a constant speed regardless of the animation, and moves step by step in perfect synchronization with the stride length created by the contraction of its own muscles (animation data), creating an extremely realistic feeling of contact with the ground with less than 1 mm of deviation between the feet and the ground.
Figure: Infographic that clearly illustrates the basic processing flow and mechanism of Root Motion in Japanese.
Detailed mechanism and operating principle
Enable "Apply Root Motion" of the Animator component and apply the movement component of the root bone included in the motion data directly as the physical movement of the entire character.