# Trying to match UE5 Skeleton to my custom character

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/trying-to-match-ue5-skeleton-to-my-custom-character/1601285>\
**Category:** Character & Animation\
**Tags:** rig, skeleton-mesh, fortnite-creative, unreal-editor-for-fortnite, question, fortnite\
**Created:** [January 9, 2024, 9:19am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/trying-to-match-ue5-skeleton-to-my-custom-character/1601285 "2024-01-09T09:19:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MartenZander](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/martenzander/32/589446_2.png) [@MartenZander](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MartenZander)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:19am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/trying-to-match-ue5-skeleton-to-my-custom-character/1601285/1 "2024-01-09T09:19:24Z")

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Hey there,  
I bet this has been discussed many times before but I just can’t seem to find proper and reliable information on this online.

I worked out an animation blueprint using the SK\_Manny. Now I want to rig my own character mesh to the same skeleton in Maya so that my new character can share the same animations and animation blueprint as my Manny. However, I was wondering how exactly I would do that as my custom character is slightly different in terms of proportions and bind pose. This leads me to the question: Can I simply import the manny skeleton into maya, adjust it’s bone positions and rotations to match my character and then bind it? Is there anything else I need to take care of or watch out for when doing that? Stuff like joint orients or anything like that?

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**Author:** ![nickfdengler](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@nickfdengler](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/nickfdengler)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 3:41am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/trying-to-match-ue5-skeleton-to-my-custom-character/1601285/2 "2026-08-08T03:41:36Z")

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I know this was two years ago and trying to use message boards in the age of Discord and discord is painful, but in case anyone else has this issue:

You can export a model and its skeleton by dragging the skeletal mesh into the scene. Select it, and then go to the main menu File → Export Selected…

It will export the fbx which you can then import into Maya to use for your character. You’ll have to do a lot of manual dragging but that should at least get ya started.