How to create Minecraft skins

Minecraft is all about possibilities. It is such a huge game, with so many customizable elements that in Minecraft the possibilities are endless. As the name suggests, the world of Minecraft is full of elements that you can mine and then craft into items. You can then in, turn combine these items and elements to build more advanced items and before you know it, you’re three years into a building a beach house in the dessert and having your friends over for tea.

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Minecraft isn’t just about shaping the world around you, however. The endless possibilities begin much closer to home. Thanks to Minecraft skins you can shape your own character. The avatar that represents you can be shaped by your imagination too. In fact, the more unique your Minecraft skin is, the better. Let’s look at Minecraft skins in a little more detail, where to find them, and how to create your own.

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Minecraft Skins

When you’re playing Minecraft, you can look at yourself at any moment, simply by pressing the F5 key. There are two default skins, “Steve” and “Alex”. They’re pretty basic, offering pixelated representations of a couple of normal-looking people. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to be normal, if you don’t want to be.

Minecraft skins are like digital wraps that completely cover your Minecraft character. In their base form, they’re saved as tiny PNG files and look a bit like flat pack paper figures that you fold in certain ways to give them their 3D physical form.

Where to find Minecraft Skins

There are literally millions of Minecraft skins out there, pre-made and ready to download. It’d take too long to go through all the places you can find them, so we’ll just tell you about the two best sources of Minecraft skins.

The Skindex (www.minecraftskins.com) offers a seemingly endless library of user-generated skins and layers. As well as being able to download full player skins that’ll give your character a complete look, The Skindex also gives you the chance to download separate layers like hairstyles or items of clothing to put on top of your own Minecraft skin elements.

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MinecraftSkins.net is a little more polished than The Skindex. It offers different categories for Minecraft Skins like Movies, Games, People, and Fantasy. On top of giving you the option to download the skins you find, MinecraftSkins.net also gives you the chance to edit and personalize them.

Another great place to find Minecraft skins is Binge.co where the community helps users find answers to all sorts of questions. Check out the “What are the best Minecraft Skins?” and “What are the best resources for finding Minecraft Skins?” pages to see what the bingers have been saying about custom skins.

How to edit skins on Minecraft

The skin editor found on MinecraftSkins.net offers a handy and simple to use tool for editing Minecraft skins. You can easily rotate the skin you’re working on, overlay a grid on top so you can paint on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and quickly undo any mistakes you might make. There is a vital element missing from MinecraftSkins.net, however. There is no Minecraft skin creator.

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How to make custom Minecraft skins

The Minecraft Wiki page, Minepedia, lays out all of the best community-driven Minecraft skin editors available today. There are mobile apps for editing Minecraft skins on an Android smartphone or iPhone, and apps and web-based skin editors for editing Minecraft skins on Windows PC, Mac Xbox, or PlayStation.

3D Skin Editor for Minecraft

QB9’s new skin editor for Minecraft is a very popular tool for Android and iOS, used by Minecraft users all over the world. It has all manner of advanced editing tools from a full spectrum color-picker to advanced zoom and rotation features. Once you’ve created your Minecraft skin you can then upload it to your Mojang account and use it on your PC, PS4, or Xbox One.

NovaSkin

NovaSkin is a web-based Minecraft skin creator that offers you a 3D model of your creation. It also gives you the handy element isolation tool, which allows you to remove all the other elements, like legs, torso, and head, etc. that you’re not working on at the time. You can also search for inspiration by pulling up the skins of users you’ve met in the game by searching for their Minecraft username.

MC Skinner

MC Skinner is another well-known Minecraft skin creation tool that works in your web browser. It might look a little dated, but it still has all the regular skin creation and editing tools and some very interesting skin visualization tools too. You can see what your skin will look like when it is carrying out animated movements and offers a secondary grid for looking at the added layer, which can be used for things like glasses and helmets etc. Once you’re done you can upload your creation directly to Minecraft.net.

Wrapping up

As you can see, your Minecraft avatar is a world in itself. Furthermore, nobody wants to look like a Steve, so it is very important to get your avatar wrapped up in a cool skin that you think represents you in the real world or the type of player you think you might be in Minecraft.

If you’re a new Minecraft player and you think creating your own skins from scratch is a bit beyond your skillset, stick to the likes of The Skindex and MinecraftSkins.net. You’ll definitely be able to find a skin that suits you, to begin with. After a while though, you will want to change things up.

When you decide that you want a totally unique skin, whether that be through tweaking a pre-designed skin or building yourself one from scratch, you have a few options available to you. The three we’ve laid out make the design process as easy as possible, but also walk you through the uploading process too. In no time at all, you’ll be walking around your Minecraft server in a skin unlike any other.