UE 5.6 – Control Rig + Sequencer: character stays in T-pose / animation won’t play (project-specific; works in fresh project)

Development Character & Animation
1

In my project, adding an Animation track to a character in Sequencer makes the mesh stick in a T-pose and the animation won’t play. Same workflow works fine in a brand-new 5.6 project with the default mannequin. Looking for ideas on what project/asset setting could be blocking evaluation, and how this can be resolved.

See screen recording demo here

Thank you for the help in advance!

2

I think it was due to me renaming the skeletal mesh or skeleton, because when I reverted back to a commit before the renaming, the animations are playing in the sequencer fine with my custom character…

I’ve read that renaming the skeletal mesh/skeletons can break the relationship between them and the animation sequences, so assuming it’s something related to that.