Player Character Animation Blueprint Not Updating in UE5?

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble getting my Animation Blueprint to work correctly for a third-person player character in Unreal Engine 5.3. The issue is that the animations (like idle, walk, run) are not updating or playing properly during gameplay, even though everything looks fine in the editor.

Problem:

  • The character spawns correctly and can move around using input.

  • However, the skeletal mesh stays in T-pose or just plays the idle animation without transitioning.

  • The Animation Blueprint is assigned in the mesh component, but it doesn’t seem to respond to movement.

What I’ve Checked:

  • Animation Blueprint is correctly assigned in the skeletal mesh component (in both the BP_Character and the mesh itself).

  • Inside the AnimBP, I’ve set up a standard state machine with Idle/Walk/Run based on speed.

  • The Speed variable is being calculated in the AnimGraph using Try Get Pawn Owner → Get Velocity → Vector Length.

  • Print String inside AnimBP shows that Speed is always 0, even when the character moves.

What I’ve Tried:

  • Confirmed that the player character is possessed at BeginPlay.

  • Made sure the character is using a movement component (inherits from Character class).

  • Added Try Get Pawn Owner validity checks — it returns None.

  • Tried calling Set Anim Instance Class manually at runtime — no change.

  • Rebuilt the character from the Third Person template — still same issue.

Engine Info:

  • Unreal Engine version: 5.3.2

  • Using Blueprint-only project

  • No custom C++ code

  • Using Enhanced Input System

Question:

Why is Try Get Pawn Owner() returning None in my Animation Blueprint? Is there a better way to get the movement data from the player character, or am I missing a setup step?

Any help would be really appreciated — I’ve been stuck on this for days.

Thanks!