Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your SKEL file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert SKEL to another file type
To convert SKEL skeleton animations to another format, you need Autodesk 3ds Max or other 3D software.
Convert a file to SKEL
To convert other file formats to the "Character Rigging Data" file type, you need software like Autodesk 3ds Max or a similar tool.
About SKEL files
A .SKEL file contains 3D character rigging and bone hierarchy data used for skeletal animation. Game developers use this format to define how 3D models move, bend, and interact within a game engine. Major titles like Grand Theft Auto V, World of Warcraft, and Lineage II rely on .SKEL files to map animations to character meshes. Modders and 3D artists typically manage these files using Autodesk 3ds Max combined with community-built import scripts. The primary disadvantage of the .SKEL format is its highly proprietary nature. It is not a standardized file type; a .SKEL file from Rockstar Games is structurally incompatible with one from Blizzard Entertainment. These files are usually compiled into binary data, meaning they cannot be opened by standard 3D viewers or web browsers without engine-specific decompression tools. They are heavily fragmented and lock users into the original game ecosystem. When dealing with .SKEL files, the best conversion targets are FBX (Filmbox), DAE (Collada), or GLTF. Converting to these industry-standard formats preserves bone weights and hierarchical animation trees, though some engine-specific metadata may be lost. Because this is a closed, proprietary format, standard online converters universally fail to process it. Only the original game engine or dedicated modding software can properly read or export the 3D data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SKEL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert SKEL file to , you can use Autodesk 3ds Max or similar software from the "3D Character Skeleton Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to SKEL, try Autodesk 3ds Max or another comparable tool in the "3D Character Skeleton Data" category.
The SKEL Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SKEL converter.