Hello. Unfortunately, in order to get the legs to move properly, I need these bones, otherwise the legs of the model will bend incorrectly. If you have ever seen a Nausicaa Ohmu move, you would see this is required in order to get proper movement. I also did everything you said for the most part when creating this skeleton such as the root starting at 0,0,0 and the whole model moving with the root. I also made the leg rig this way so that when I animate it, the legs will stick to the ground when moving, creating the proper “pulling” effect.
There still remains the issue that this rig worked before, and now, all of a sudden, it just doesn’t. Even the FBX’s I had saved and had already confirmed worked in engine, no longer work anymore. Something has to be in UE5 that’s causing this.
I have not edited the skeleton since I created it (And before animating it). Something else must be wrong as I can import this animation again with no problem back into Blender and it works 100% of the time. I’ll try messing with the rig a bit more to see if I cant get it to work again. I might be misinterpreting your response, so please tell me if I am still missing something. Thank you for your replies. I very much appreciate how long you have stuck around for this issue.