How To Change A Minecraft Skin

While Minecraft as a sandbox game focuses on the survival and building aspects players can do, there’s still a sense of customization that comes with it. Players get to freely express themselves not only through chat but also through how they present themselves. Minecraft skins allow this, giving players the freedom to dress up their in-game characters.

You can change your skin whenever you want. From choosing community-made skins to download and use or making your skin file to upload on your account, you have the freedom to customize your character. There are even different skin models to choose from.

If you want to know how to change your Minecraft skin, we’ve got you covered. We’ll be guiding you through what you should know about changing your skin, and where you can get more designs.

What is a Minecraft skin?

Minecraft skins are the appearances of a player’s character. As the game doesn’t necessarily provide clothes just as tops, bottoms, and shoes besides its in-game armor, it’s up to players themselves to make their own “clothing” in the form of skins.

Skins are graphic files you can download to change your character’s outer appearance. Moreover, skins are made up of pixels just like Minecraft’s entire world. How it works is that the skin image is wrapped around your character.

Choosing a Minecraft model and skin to use

There are two types of skin models you can use. Knowing the right type of skin model size is also important. While it may not sound like much to you, it makes a huge difference visually when you put it on. Be sure to choose the right model that will work with the skin you plan to save or make.

Classic

The classic skin model is the default model type you use when first playing. It’s a much wider model that makes the model look more pixelated.

Steve’s skin file uses this type of model. His arms are four pixels wide.

Slim

Then for the slim skin model, this is used usually for more feminine skins. The arms of your character are thinner and the shoulders are slightly lower.

You can notice this if you’re using Alex’s skin file. Her arms are three pixels wide.

There aren’t any particular advantages or disadvantages to using either model. It’s just a preference of the player for the type of skin you plan to use or create. You just have to find what model will work best with the skin and vice-versa.

How to create a Minecraft skin?

To make a custom skin in Minecraft, you can use any of the model templates the game provides on their website.

• Classic
• Slim

Once you’ve downloaded either template, you can then edit this as you please. Usually, templates are edited on design programs but they can also be edited on browser-based tools such as SkinDex Editor and PMCSkin3D which allows you to have a real-time preview of what the skin will look like on a model. This is quite convenient for those who have a challenging time figuring out which part goes where on the templates provided.

Don’t forget to save your skin file and download it to your device so you can easily find it. It would save you the time of having to make and edit new skins you’ve made.

How do I change my Minecraft skin in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition?

As you now know the basics of Minecraft skins, we can get to the part of learning how to change skins. Changing your skin is pretty easy and the steps only differ depending on what edition you’re using.

Java Edition

So for the Minecraft: Java Edition, you first have to open your Minecraft Launcher. You can see the different Minecraft editions you have.

Navigate to the “Minecraft: Java Edition” tab and click it. You’ll find a series of tabs on top and one of them says “Skins” which you can then click.

After clicking the “Skins” tab, you’ll see the different default skins available. You can pick any of those or upload your custom skin. This is done by pressing the “New Skin” button with the “+” sign on top of it.

Once a new window opens, you can then browse for a skin file to upload and indicate the name of your uploaded skin to properly label it. You can then click either “Save” or “Save & Use.”

Be sure that the file you upload is the flat square image with the unwrapped design like this example below.

Bedrock Edition

For the Bedrock Edition, skins work a bit differently. Similar to the Java Edition, launch the game itself. You can then change skins by clicking on the “Dressing Room” button found below your character model.

This edition calls skins as “Characters.” So, you’d have to click the “+” button or “Create Character” button to add a new skin to a character slot.

Additionally, you can change your hairstyle, eye color, beard, wings, ears, tails, and more. Besides that, you can buy or download outfits or items from the Marketplace. There are free and paid skins you can choose from.

The catch that comes with Bedrock Edition skins, however, is that you can have a total of only five owned skins or character slots. So, plan carefully the outfits you want to have in your Dressing Room.

Where do I get Minecraft skins?

With a clearer understanding of how to change one’s skin, you can now design or look on the Internet for your ideal skin in Minecraft.

There are a variety of websites dedicated to creating and sharing custom designs. These include popular platforms like MinecraftSkins.com, NameMC, Planet Minecraft, and SkinDex.

Minecraft’s official Marketplace also offers professionally designed skins to be purchased as part of themed skin packs in relation to various collaborations the game makes.

These websites offer a huge library of user-created skins ranging from simple designs to highly detailed themed characters you can scroll through. The majority of these are also free to download, free to edit, and can easily be used and ported onto your character.

With that in mind, have fun when you change your skin. There are so many ideas you can take inspiration from to make a character that best captures your personality and identity. While it takes a while to get a hang of designing one, it will be worth it once you’ve finished creating a skin that’s uniquely yours and can best express yourself.