Meshy character to Unreal Engine 5: rig it for the Manny skeleton

What Meshy gives you

• •Rigging in the web app: in Animate, select the character and click Rig, then pick Humanoid, Quadruped Dog or Smart Rig (Beta). For a humanoid, Meshy places markers on the chin, shoulders, elbows, wrists, groin, knees and ankles, and you drag them into place, with symmetry on by default.
• •Animations: a rigged humanoid comes with a walking and a running animation, and you can add motions from a library of more than 600 presets or describe one with Text to Motion.
• •Downloads: animated models download as FBX, GLB or USDZ, and Meshy recommends FBX for Unreal. For a humanoid, Download Settings has a Skeleton template option, and its default is Mixamo.
• •Inputs: a Meshy generation, or an uploaded .fbx, .obj, .stl, .gltf or .glb of up to 100 MB. A generated model over 300,000 faces has to go through Remesh before Meshy rigs it.
• •Cost: Meshy's credit table lists Rigging at 0 credits and Animate at 0 credits a clip in the web app. Clips beyond a free set need a paid plan, and Text to Motion costs credits. Through the API, rigging is 5 credits a request and needs a paid plan.
• •Unreal plugin: Meshy's plugin (Windows builds for UE 5.4 to 5.7, source for other versions) can send a rigged, animated character into your open level. Sending needs a Pro plan or higher.
• •Not covered: Meshy's docs say facial bones, tails and other custom skeletons need a hand rig in Blender or Maya, and Smart Rig results cannot use the animation library and download as GLB only.

Why a Meshy rig does not play Manny animations as is

An Unreal animation belongs to a skeleton asset: its bone names, hierarchy and rest orientations. The UE5 Manny skeleton has 89 bones, including five spine bones, two neck bones, paired twist bones on every limb, finger metacarpals and IK helper bones. A Mixamo-style skeleton has different names, three spine bones, one neck bone and no twist or IK bones, so Unreal treats it as a different skeleton. Meshy's own clips play fine on Meshy's rig. The engine's locomotion sets, Lyra and the Fab packs built for the UE5 mannequin are what need a bridge.

Meshy's docs say the Skeleton template has other choices besides Mixamo but do not list them. If your download dialog offers an Unreal option, test it as you would any rig: import onto the project's SK_Mannequin and play a Manny clip. If the importer will not use that skeleton, or the arms twist, it is not Manny-compatible.

Route 1: keep the Meshy rig and retarget in UE5

• •In Meshy, rig the character, add the clips you want and download FBX with the Mixamo skeleton template.
• •Import the FBX into UE5 and let the importer create a new skeleton. Check the height against the default mannequin.
• •Create an IK Rig for the Meshy skeleton: retarget root on the hips, chains for the spine, head, both arms and both legs. Recent UE5 versions can generate this for well-known skeletons such as Mixamo's.
• •Create an IK Retargeter from the UE5 mannequin's IK Rig to the Meshy one, fix the retarget pose until the arms match, and preview a clip.
• •Batch-retarget the Manny animations you need into their own folder. Repeat for every new pack you adopt.

Route 2: rig the Meshy mesh to the Manny skeleton with RigMaster

• •In Meshy, generate the character with Pose set to A-Pose (or T-Pose), and download the textured model as GLB, not the rigged one.
• •Upload the GLB to RigMaster. It takes GLB or glTF files up to 100 MB.
• •Place the 18 joint markers. They are the main input the fitter uses, so put each one on the real joint.
• •Rig it for 15 credits. Each rig includes 5 free polish rounds, so you can move a marker and run it again.
• •Download the FBX and import it into UE5, choosing the project's SK_Mannequin as the skeleton. Assign any Manny or Quinn animation and press play.
• •Optional: need the same character in Unity or Godot too? The finished rig converts free to a Mixamo-named FBX or a Godot humanoid glTF.

Fingers and face

• •Fingers: Meshy's humanoid markers stop at the wrists, and its docs do not say whether the rig has finger bones. Whatever rigs it, a hand can only bend fingers the mesh separates; fused fingers move as one block.
• •In RigMaster you pick 5, 4 or 3 fingers or Mitten for each hand, and a hand whose fingers are fused rigs as a mitten that bends at the wrist.
• •Face: Meshy's docs say facial bones need a hand rig in Blender or Maya. RigMaster's face rig, on paid plans, adds a jaw, plus eyes and eyelids where the mesh has eyeballs and lids; with painted eyes you get the jaw.

Clean up the Meshy mesh first

• •Scale: Meshy asks for the character's height in meters when it rigs. RigMaster exports in centimetres at the mannequin's height by default (an option keeps your model's own height), so UE's default import scale of 1.0 is right.
• •Rotation: the character should face forward. Meshy's rig dialog has Rotate for this, and its API expects the face toward +Z, the glTF forward direction. For RigMaster, fix a sideways GLB in Blender: rotate, apply rotation, export.
• •Triangle count: Meshy makes you Remesh above 300,000 faces. RigMaster accepts dense meshes and offers a free reduction in the page for very dense ones, keeping your original. Either way, reduce before rigging, not after.
• •Non-manifold and loose parts: repair holes and separate fused fingers or legs in Blender. RigMaster binds each loose piece (hair, a hat) rigidly to the bone it touches; a weapon is better removed and attached in Unreal to a socket.
• •Compression: export without meshopt compression. RigMaster refuses meshopt GLBs with a message saying so; Draco is fine.

Meshy rig, retargeting or RigMaster: compared

Honest limits

• •RigMaster rigs humanoids only. For a dog, a creature or a robot with extra limbs, Meshy's Quadruped Dog or Smart Rig, or a hand rig in Blender, is the right tool.
• •RigMaster has no animation library of its own; Manny packs and MotionSmith motions play on its rig. If Meshy's 600+ presets are what you want, keep Meshy's rig.
• •Neither tool repairs bad input. Fused limbs, holes and a mid-pose character rig badly in Meshy and in RigMaster.
• •Auto-rigged AI meshes suit prototypes, NPCs and jams. A hero character close to the camera may still want weight cleanup by hand.
• •RigMaster rigs one character per upload; there is no batch mode.
• •Meshy's features and prices change. The facts here are from its docs on the date above.

Sources

Meshy facts on this page come from these pages, read on October 28, 2026; the rigging, animation and pricing pages were re-checked on October 29, 2026. RigMaster facts come from our own product.

• •Meshy docs: Rigging: character types, markers, the Mixamo default template, the 300,000-face limit
• •Meshy docs: Animation: the 600+ presets, FBX, GLB and USDZ downloads
• •Meshy docs: Pricing and credits: credit costs, the Free plan, licensing
• •Meshy docs: Export and file formats
• •Meshy docs: Bridge to Unreal: the Pro plan requirement
• •Meshy docs: Meshy for Unreal: engine versions
• •Meshy API docs: Rigging
• •Meshy API docs: Pricing

Frequently asked questions