tl;dr /
Prerequisite: Blender 2.7+ and UE4 4.16+ AND make sure no undesired anims are on the NLA stack (refer to step 3 and 4 to see how to remove them from the stack)
Keep both the NLA Editor and the Dope Sheet/Action Editor open at the same time.
①Set the rig to Pose mode
②Select all bones and then just:
- Select the desired anim in the Action Editor (Step ② below)
- Push it on the NLA stack in the NLA Editor (Step ③ below)
- Select the same desired anim (no longer any need to select the mesh). Also verify all bones are still selected and the armature is in Pose mode (it will be so long as you didn’t accidentally select a single bone or press A-key)
- Export fbx (make sure All Actions is unchecked)
way you can literally export 5 single anims in under a minute.
/ tl;dr
tl;bwr
It’s completely unintuitive and tedious, but it works 100%, so I decided to show how to do it since all the threads I’ve found here were dated dead ends.
I’ve verified it in UE4 4.15.2 on Blender 2.78b (any UE4 4.15 version and any Blender 2.78 version should work exactly the same).
tutorial assumes you have already imported your skeletal mesh into UE4, and that it was exported as fbx 7.4 Binary, not ASCII.
① Open up your character w/ the animation you want to export. Go to the NLA editor and delete every single track there is (follow the steps in the screenshot EXACTLY).
It should look like when you’re done:
② Go to the Dope Sheet, select (right-click) the Armature and switch it to pose mode, switch to the Action Editor, and select the animation that you want to export.
③ Go back to the NLA editor and push the animation onto the NLA stack by clicking on the double-down arrow below the armature (to the right of the animation you selected in step 2)
④ Make sure the armature and animation you selected in step 2 are NOT muted.