Custom ASkeletalMeshActor with Anim Blueprint

I’ve got a custom ASkeletalMeshActor native class that I am using for all containers in my game with all of the shared functionality of a container (open/close functions, params like whether the container is locked or not, a loot table to spawn items from, etc.).

I’ve got an instance of this custom actor called BP_Crate01.

I also have an Animation Blueprint created in editor from the same skeletal mesh, called ABP_Crate01.

I’ve assigned ABP_Crate01 to BP_Crate01’s skeletal mesh component’s “Anim Class” with Animation Mode set to “Use Animation Blueprint”.

I have added a Notify on the animation at the keyframe I want the crate to spawn loot, and I am playing the animation from BP_Crate01 by calling PlayAnimation from the skeletal mesh component.

The animation plays, but the notify doesn’t fire. I’ve tried adding a Print node but nothing gets output from the AnimNotify event in the event graph on the ABP_Crate01.

I’ve watched a tonne of videos but I’ve found none that cover how to implement an AnimBlueprint using a custom ASkeletalMeshActor base class. I have a feeling I might be going about this entirely the wrong way, but I’m stumped, and honestly I apologise for a confusing description, it’s confusing me trying to wrap my head around. This is all super new to me.

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

So I’ve gotten this far:

In my BP_Crate01, on begin play I call PlayAnimation and it works as expected. If I manually trigger the ABP_Crate01 anim notify event from BP_Crate01, it fires as expected and I get “LOOT SPAWN NOTIFY” printed to screen →

BP_Crate01:

ABP_Crate01:
image

However if I just call PlayAnimation on BP_Crate01, the anim notify event is never fired, no “LOOT SPAWN NOTIFY” printed to screen →

BP_Crate01 alternative:
image

SKM_Crate01_Anim: