Adding my first player character

I’m trying to add a character I made in Blender to a UE4 Level. I’m stuck and thus I need some guidance…
It seems (to me) that there are two ways I can do this, but I do not know which way is the better one.

  • I can either replace the UE4 Mannequin’s mesh with my custom character’s mesh, and retarget the Mannequin’s skeleton rig to my own character. I got stuck when I tried to export the Mannequin’s rig to Blender since I wasn’t able to do it properly.

  • Or I can replace the Mannequin completely with my own mesh, skeleton rig and animations, etc.

I’m not exactly sure if the first method is even possible, but if it is, it is certainly the faster way to do this. The second method is better for me in terms of knowledge gain.

I’m sure anyone with more experience than me would know exactly what to do. Thank you.