Change Your Minecraft Skin

Changing your Minecraft skins allows you to be unique and express your individuality! Read this article to learn how.

10 Second Summary

1. Find a website that offers Minecraft skins.
2. Select and download your desired skin.
3. Log into Minecraft and go to your profile page.
4. Click the Choose File button.
5. Find the skin you wish to use and select it.
6. Wait for the skin to upload.

Steps

Standard Method (Pre-Made Skin)

  1. Find a skin. You can search for a skin using Google, there are many websites which provide free index's of Minecraft skins which you can browse through to find the right skin for you. Some of the most used skin sites are:
    • Minecraftindex.com - Minecraft Index
    • MinecraftSkins.com - Minecraft Skindex
    • MinecraftSkins.net - Best Minecraft Skins
  2. Download the skin. The skin will download as a PNG file to your computer's Downloads folder.
    • If you would like to edit or create your own skin, any image editor such as Gimp, or ms.paint will work, but there are several specialized options online.
  3. Log in to your account. In order to set your new skin you must login to your Minecraft.net account and navigate to your profile page.
  4. Choose the file. Click the Choose File button, find and select the (.png) skin file that you wish to change to. Once the file is selected hit upload, then your skin will be changed, enjoy!
    • It may take up to 5 minutes for the changes to appear and your game may require a restart for you to see the changes.

Using a No Download Pre-Made Skin

  1. Go to Planet Minecraft and choose a skin. This method is a popular and easy way to change your avatar without downloading anything.
  2. Click on "upload to minecraft" or "change skin".
  3. Wait to be taken to the official Minecraft page. Log in.
  4. Click on "change", then wait about a minute.
  5. Log into the Minecraft Launcher and enjoy your new avatar!

Building Your Own Skin

  1. Go to Novaskin. The Novaskin Skin Editor is a website that will allow you to build and download a skin which you make yourself on the website. Though you could use software like Photoshop or MS Paint, Novaskin is likely the simplest way to make your own skin.
  2. Find the invisible skin in the frame. There will be an invisible outline of the character which you will need to locate to begin coloring it. The easiest way to do this is to select one of the colors at the bottom and to randomly color the center of the screen until you see it.
  3. Create your skin. Once you've found the frame for the character, you can begin creating your skin. There are a variety of tools which you can use, varying from a dropper (which lets you copy an existing color from a pixel) to layers (which let you do your shading separate from your base color). Experiment to get the hang of how the tools work.
    • Color the base skin color. Choose a base color for the skin by clicking one of the colors at the bottom and using the color slider to select the color. Color all the skin by clicking and dragging across all of the pixels on the character.
    • Color the clothes. Make whatever clothing you would like on the character. The simplest would be jeans and a tee shirt.
    • Color the face and hair. Coloring the face and hair can be difficult. Remember to use multiple shades of the same color on the hair to make it look real. Minecraft characters do not usually have a nose drawn.
    • Use the pre-made shading to make your character look better. From the sidebar on the left, click “Wear”. Select one of the first two shading options to make your character look better.
    • Use one of the pre-made skins as a base if you would rather not make one from scratch. You can also choose one of the pre-made skins on the left (under the Gallery tab). Find a skin you like and click on it or hover over it and click “+ layer”.
    • Make sure that all sides of the character are colored. You can select different sections of the character frame in the bottom left corner. Make the disappear to reach the hidden areas that need coloring.
  4. Click “Save” when you are done. This will save the file as a .png, which you can add to your game.
  5. Navigate to your Profile on the Minecraft website. Log in to the Minecraft website and click the “Profile” tab.
  6. Click “Choose File”. Find the png file you saved and click “Open”.
  7. Click “Upload”.
  8. Play your game. Once the file uploads, your character should now be wearing the custom skin.

Changing Offline Only

  1. Download your skin file. Download your skin .png file.
  2. Turn off your internet. Close your internet connection.
  3. Find the folder. Search for "%appdata%" and go to "/Roaming/.minecraft/versions" and choose the version you want.
  4. Find and open the jar file. Open that folder and find the .jar file (may be executable). You will need winRAR to open this file.
  5. Copy and then delete the meta file. Copy and then delete the meta.inf file. Put the copy somewhere safe, where you won't lose it.
  6. Change the Steve file. Go to "assests/minecraft/textures/entity" and rename the image "steve" into "steveZERO".
    • You don't want to delete the file because if you want to play online, Minecraft will crash.
  7. Place and title your new skin file. Rename the image you downloaded to "steve" (so that it matches the file name of the original Steve skin), and place it in that same location (entity folder).
  8. Start the game. Close the folders and start the game.
  9. Enjoy your new skin. You will see yourself there! Just remember: This skin just works offline and if you go online it doesn't work. The holes in your skin will appear black on multiplayer. This is because people can cheat in games by blanking their skin and making it invisible.

Tips

  • Ensure your character has changed properly by starting up (or closing and restarting, if you already have it open) Minecraft and hitting F5 on either your PC or Mac to go into third person view. Once you have verified your character, you can begin using it in your game.
  • You can quickly view your new skin without having to close Minecraft. Simply close the world or server you are in and rejoin. Your new skins will already be changed for you.
  • Check out other Minecraft skin making websites if you are having trouble finding one you like.

Warnings

  • Only change your skin through the official minecraft.net website.
  • Any file that asks for your Minecraft password and username that isn't Minecraft is not to be trusted and should be treated as a virus.
  • Don't use a pirated copy of Minecraft!

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Sources and Citations

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