Blender FBX Export - Armature Root Missing in Unity

[lcompton]

I have a number of non-humanoid rigged models with animations. For an individual model, I’d like to import the mesh once along with the armature and create a Unity animation avatar for it. For animations, I want to export only the armature from Blender and then use the “Copy From Other Avatar” option in Unity. I’ve used this method successfully for Humanoid rigs.

What I’m finding is that if the export from Blender is limited to the armature, the imported asset in Unity is missing the armature layer.

Here are screenshots of the Blender FBX export options…

Export including mesh and armature…

Export only including the armature…

Here are the hierarchies for my “base pose” FBX file (Thing), my animation exported from Blender containing the mesh and armature (ThingIdleAll), and my animation exported from Blender containing only the armature (ThingIdleArmatureOnly)…

The animation for “ThingIdleAll” works, but the animation for “ThingIdleArmatureOnly” does not, presumably due to the mismatch in the imported hierarchies.

Is there a way to fix this (preferably in Blender)?

[Quasm0k]

Try checking the “preserve hierarchy” bool in the Model tab of the FBX and see if that helps.

[lcompton]

That was it! Thanks a bunch. It’s obvious once you see it, but easy to miss (at least for me).