Can you load half an Action to a rig?

I’m quite new to the Action editor and the NLA editor. I basically know what they are but havn’t been able to use them much.

If i set up a walk cycle and saved it as an action, Could i later load that action onto just the legs of a rig?

If you want an example, in the animation i’m working on at the moment, the next scene the character is just going to do a bit of walking and talking. So i’m wondering if i can use a walk cycle, but be able to go back and edit his head and arm movements on their own.

So, know what the Action editor and NLA editor ‘is’ and not knowing how to use them,

Is that sort of thing possible? x:

you can have two actions run simultaneously, and for the walking animation, mute the bones that don’t relate to the legs.

What I have done was have a walk action that only utilizes the lower body (no keys for the upper body at all, leave the upper body blank). Then I would animate the upper body in another action (no keys for the lower body for this action, it’s the opposite of the first step) When playing simultaneously, the actions can play seamlessly at the same time.

You can also edit an action by going into edit mode in the NLA or Dope Sheet/Action Editor mode (press Tab, it turns green in the NLA Editor), then edit the keyframes of the action in the Dope Sheet (Action Editor mode). Pressing Tab again ‘closes’ the action again (turns yellow in the NLA Editor - keys grey out in the Dope Sheet/Action Editor).
This way you could append the action of your walk cycle, rename the action and delete the desired keys (or add some…), then close it. This way you get different actions out of an initial one…