Need help with head movement and animations not syncing with the secondary model

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a custom mob in MCreator (NeoForge 1.21.x) and I’m having an issue with model layers and animations not syncing.

What I want to achieve

My mob should visually move its head only in certain states:

• ✅ Walking
• ✅ Running
• ✅ Standing idle

And it should NOT visually look around during these animations:

• ❌ Floating
• ❌ Swimming
• ❌ Sitting
• ❌ Riding

Important:
By “not looking”, I do not mean stopping the AI head rotation.
I only want to not override the head rotation visually during those animations.

What I tried

To achieve this, I created two separate models:

1. Model A – overrides head rotation (head follows netHeadYaw / headPitch)
2. Model B – does NOT override head rotation (head stays neutral)

I added variables and logic so the correct model is used depending on the mob’s state.
✔ The correct model is being selected and rendered when expected.

The problem

The issue is that animations only play on the default model.

• When Model A is active → animations work correctly
• When Model B is active → animations do NOT play at all

I already tried:

• Creating separate animation definitions for the second model
• Re-exporting animations from Blockbench
• Ensuring bone names and hierarchy match

None of that worked.

Before adding the head-override system (when I only had one model), all animations worked perfectly.
So the animations themselves are correct — the problem seems to be that MCreator does not apply animations to secondary model layers.

This feels very similar to the issue described here:
https://mcreator.net/forum/118534/model-layers-and-animations-dont-sync-what-are-my-options

However, in my case:

• I need to animate a different model, not just the default one
• Switching models is intentional, not a mistake

Extra info

• The different textures you may see are intentional (temperature-based skins) and not related to the bug
• I recorded a Blockbench video showing how the animations should behave on the second model
• Screenshots and recordings are available in the MCreative Discord – help forum:
  https://discord.com/channels/1138873640365076480/1452849011966087199

My main question

How can I make animations work on a secondary model layer in MCreator?

Or alternatively:

• Is there a way to disable head rotation visually per animation/state without using multiple models?
• Or is MCreator fundamentally limited to animating only the default model?

I know this is a complex setup, but any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
I can provide more images, videos, or code if needed.

Thank you!