Rigify to Unreal Engine 5: export a Rigify character and play Manny animations on it

What Rigify gives you, and what Unreal needs

• •Rigify is the rig generator that comes with Blender. You add a meta-rig (Human, or Basic Human, which has no face and no fingers), fit its bones to the character and click Generate Rig to get a full control rig.
• •The bones that deform the mesh are in the DEF bone collection. They are the only ones a game engine needs; the control and mechanism bones exist for animating in Blender.
• •Rigify assumes 1 unit is 1 metre, so a human is about 2 units tall. Unreal works in centimetres, so check the height against the default mannequin after import.
• •Blender's manual advises keeping the meta-rig so you can generate the rig again later, and warns against large edits to the generated rig.
• •In Unreal an animation belongs to a skeleton asset. Manny and Quinn animations, Lyra and the Fab packs built for the UE5 mannequin expect SK_Mannequin's names and hierarchy, which a Rigify skeleton does not have.

Route 1: export the deform bones and retarget in UE5

1. 1.In Blender, select the character mesh and the generated rig (not the meta-rig).
2. 2.Export FBX with the exporter's Only Deform Bones option on, so the control and mechanism bones stay behind. Leave Add Leaf Bones off unless you want an extra end bone on every chain.
3. 3.Import the FBX into UE5 and let the importer create a new skeleton. Compare the height with the default mannequin and fix the scale before going further.
4. 4.Open the new skeleton's bone tree and check that the deform bones still form one chain from the hips up to the head and out along each limb. Rigify builds its rig for animating in Blender, so confirm this before you build anything on it.
5. 5.Right-click a Manny animation, choose Retarget Animation Assets and set your character as the target mesh. Unreal can generate the IK Rigs and the IK Retargeter for you; preview a walk, then fix chains and the retarget pose by hand if the arms are off.
6. 6.Export the retargeted animations to a folder of their own with a prefix. Repeat for every new pack you adopt.

Route 2: animate the mannequin with Rigify controls (UE to Rigify)

If what you want is to animate in Blender for Manny, rather than to bring your own character over, Epic's UE to Rigify add-on works the other way round. Its docs describe a node-based retargeting system that drives an Unreal rig with Rigify's controls, with templates for the Unreal mannequins, so the animation you author goes back on the original skeleton.

Check it before you plan around it: the newest UE to Rigify release notes we found (version 1.6.2, published with Epic's Blender Tools in 2023) list tests on Blender 3.5.

Route 3: rig the mesh to the Manny skeleton with RigMaster

1. 1.From Blender, export the character mesh without its rig as GLB with the glTF 2.0 exporter.
2. 2.Upload it to RigMaster. It takes GLB or glTF files up to 100 MB and offers a free reduction in the page for very dense meshes, keeping your original.
3. 3.Place the 18 joint markers, or press Suggest markers and check each one. Pick 5, 4 or 3 fingers or Mitten for each hand.
4. 4.Rig it for 15 credits. Each rig includes 5 free polish rounds, so you can move a marker and run it again.
5. 5.Import the FBX into UE5 choosing the project's SK_Mannequin as the skeleton and assign any Manny or Quinn animation, or use Apply in UE5 with the free desktop app.
6. 6.Keep the Rigify rig in Blender for any animation work that stays there; the game character now plays Manny animations directly.

Rigify export, UE to Rigify or RigMaster: compared

Honest limits

• •RigMaster rigs humanoids only. For a creature, Rigify's animal meta-rigs and the retargeting route are the tools.
• •RigMaster has no animation library of its own; Manny packs and MotionSmith motions play on its rig. It also replaces your Rigify skin weights with its own, so a character whose weights you painted by hand may be better served by Route 1.
• •Retargeting is a setup per skeleton and a re-export for every pack. Done once it is fine; done for every character it adds up.
• •UE to Rigify's last tested Blender version is old. Community add-ons that turn a Rigify rig into a game skeleton exist; we have not tested them.

Sources

Rigify, Blender and UE to Rigify facts on this page come from these pages, read on October 31, 2026. RigMaster facts come from our own product.

• •Blender manual: Rigify introduction
• •Blender manual: Rigify basic usage: the meta-rigs, 1 unit as 1 metre, Generate Rig, the DEF bone collection
• •Blender manual: FBX export: the Only Deform Bones and Add Leaf Bones options
• •Epic docs: UE to Rigify: templates for the Unreal mannequins
• •Epic Blender Tools release notes: UE to Rigify 1.6.2, tested on Blender 3.5
• •Epic docs: Auto Retargeting: Retarget Animation Assets from the Content Browser, Auto Generate Retargeter, Export Retarget Assets