Exporting character and animation from 5.6 to Maya results in elongated torso.

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hi all,

I’ve hit a brick wall trying to transfer some animations I purchased from the Fab store into Unreal Engine 5.6.

  • The animations are only officially supported for Unreal 5.5, not 5.6.
  • My workflow:
    • Added the pack to a new 5.5 project.
    • Used the “Migrate” tool to batch-move the animation assets into my 5.6 project.
    • In 5.6, I selected the migrated animations and exported them as FBX files (all export options unchecked).
    • Also exported SKM_Manny_Simple from 5.6 as an FBX for consistency.
    • Imported the SKM_Manny_Simple.fbx into Maya, then changed the hierarchy so the mesh and root node are siblings (the mesh remains skinned and responds as expected when I test thigh rotations).

So far, so good—without any animations imported, the rig behaves perfectly in Maya.

But when I select the root node and import one of the animation FBX files (that were exported from 5.6), the character’s torso is suddenly scaled up, looking stretched or about 150% taller than normal.

Here’s what I’ve tried and checked:

  • I spent 4+ hours testing every combo of FBX export/import settings from both Unreal and Maya.
  • Web searched the issue, tried suggestions, and even consulted AI tools for workflow ideas.
  • After importing, I checked the scale values on all bones in the Maya outliner, and they’re all (1,1,1).
  • Checked scale values on bones in the source animation/skeleton in Unreal 5.6—also (1,1,1).
  • If I import the animation into an empty Maya scene, the skeleton proportions remain correct. The issue only appears when I import the animation onto the FBX character in Maya.

The animated skeleton seems to “break” only during this last step. Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips for migrating UE5.5 animations to 5.6, specifically for use in Maya, or ideas what might be going wrong with my current workflow?

Thanks in advance!

2

I should point out that I encountered the same disproportioned character result even when I skipped the whole 5.6 migration, and just exported the character and animations from 5.5 and imported those into Maya. So it seems to be something unrelated to the Unreal version.

3

I found the solution!

First, I opened the animation in Unreal 5.6. Then I opened the skeleton file that it was using, which was SK_Mannequin. Then I opened that asset, then I opened the skeleton that is uses. In the skeleton editor I clicked on the gear on the window that lists the bones. I clicked “Show Retargeting Options”. Then I hovered over the bones and saw a tool-tip that is revealed by alt + ctrl. That tool-tip said that the pelvis needs to be set to “Animation Scaled”. So I set the pelvis to “Animation Scaled”, then exported the SK_Mannequin as the character/skeleton (Asset Action/Export) FBX file.

When I import that character to Max and import an animation on it the character is not disproportioned. Success!