Skin

A skin refers to the texture that is placed onto a player model or mob.

The skin is divided into areas that act as the surface area of the character (For example, there's the front head area, left leg area, etc.). A skin will only allow solid color; transparency is not allowed on the skin file except on the second head area, which is transparent by default; playing offline, pixels can be left free resulting in "holes" in the skin. The second head layer can be used to give the character glasses, hats, or other accessories (even a bigger head).

World textures
A skin can also refer to other textures in the game, such as block textures, item sprites, mob skins etc. A list of these can be found here. Modifying these has been officially supported since the Alpha 1.2.2 Update on November 10, 2010.

It is worth noting that Pigmen, Zombie, and Zombie Pigmen mobs can use typical player skins (and vice-versa). Skeleton mobs can use typical player skins as well, but keep in mind that they have their skinny arms and legs. (If a skeleton mob skin is used as a player's skin, their legs and arms will not be skinny.)

Since 1.4, in order to use the player skin for Pigmen, Zombie, and Zombie Pigmen, you must align it to the correct place on the .png or the texture will be broken.

PC
A player can only change their character's skin if they have purchased Minecraft. This is done on the Profile page by uploading a valid .png image file, which will then replace the default skin. The char.png file in minecraft.jar can also be changed and replaced. In the new version(s), everyone can see your skin

Xbox 360
There are currently 8 default skin types (with the exception of the skin packs), all of which appear to have Steve's face, but wearing different outfits and skin colors. The following are available through split screen and online only. The skins are available to be chosen in the 'Change Skin' area of Help & Options. The Xbox allows transparent skins, because you cant create own skins on Xbox and so there wont be issues with completely transparent skins.

Default:

Skin Packs
Since the Xbox 360 Edition's 1.7 update, 4J Studios have begun rolling out Skin Packs as downloadable content. Skin Packs add additional skins that players may choose from along with the 8 default skins packaged with the game. They often feature characters from other video-games (usually games on Xbox Arcade), alongside original designs.

Skin Pack 1


Skin Pack 1 was released on July 16th, 2012. It contains 45 different skins to choose from. It is purchasable through the Xbox 360 Marketplace or directly in-game through the Downloadable Content section of the game and costs 160 Microsoft Points. A trial version of Skin Pack 1 is available as a free download, which enables the full use of the original design skins, but not the skins based on copyrighted game characters which include those based on Minecraft ' s own characters.

Skin Pack 2


Skin Pack 2 was released on August 24th, 2012. It contains 45 different skins to choose from. It is purchasable through the Xbox 360 Marketplace or directly in-game through the Downloadable Content section of the game and will cost 160 Microsoft Points. A trial version of Skin Pack 2 is available as a free download, which enables the full use of the original design skins and some skins based off of certain indie game characters.

Skin Pack 3


Skin Pack 3 was released on October 17, 2012. It contains 45 different skins to choose from, including figures from Valve's Half Life 2, Portal 2, and Left 4 Dead 2. It is purchasable through the Xbox 360 Marketplace or directly in-game through the Downloadable Content section of the game and costs 160 Microsoft Points. A trial version of Skin Pack 3 is available as a free download, which enables the full use of the original design skins and skins based on indie game characters.

Summer Of Arcade Promotional Skin Pack


The Summer of Arcade Free Promotional Skin Pack was available through July 18th and August 22, 2012. It contained 15 different skins to choose from.

Halloween Skin Pack
The Halloween Skin Pack is downloadable from October 26th, 2012 to November 26th, 2012. It contains 55 different skins to choose from. 7 skins include capes. It is purchasable through the Xbox 360 Marketplace or directly in-game through the Downloadable Content section of the game and costs 160 Microsoft Points. All proceeds go to charity. In the upcoming TU7 Update, the animations of the skins in this skin pack will change to correspond with the skin. (e.g. Zombie skins will have their hands out, Grim Reapers will float, etc.)

Future
4J Studios has announced that they are working on an additional two, for a total of five packs so far. One of the two may involve Minecon capes.

Creating a skin


A custom skin is a great way to personalize your player model and can be done either by using a variety of community-made skin editors, or by editing the "char.png" file manually with an image editor like Paint.NET or another image editor. The "char.png" file can be downloaded from here. When editing the "char.png" file manually, be sure to keep the original image dimensions.

After making a custom skin using a skin editor or by editing the "char.png" file manually, you have a .png skin file. Upload it at the Profile page of www.minecraft.net and your skin is applied. Start up Minecraft and enjoy your new skin! Other players in multiplayer will also be able to see your skin. You will only be able to see your custom skin if you are logged in. When playing offline, you will not see it.

Capes
Capes (previously known as cloaks) are vanity items and are worn in addition to the player's skin. There is currently no way to obtain a cape on one's own, however there are various mods that allow players to do this.

Unused MineCon 2011 capes
These capes were featured in a poll where MineCon attendees could vote for their cape of choice. The red creeper cape won and these capes were left unused.

History
The player skin originally had a beard (that was commonly mistaken for a smile), and was removed in Beta 1.6.6..

Though, if you happened to find one of these bearded skins, and place it in your mob folder in the minecraft.jar, you can see what the old skin clearly looked like.

Exclusive cloaks (later renamed capes) were added in Beta 1.0 on December 20, 2010.

In October 2011, Notch renamed the cloak to the cape mentioning that the name was already wrong in the first place.

So far the Christmas and New Years Capes have only been given out in 2010 and not subsequent years.

As of the 1.9 pre-releases and 1.0.0, all "bottom" textures (including hand and foot) have been flipped 180 degrees. It's worth mentioning that the textures were specifically flipped and not rotated because an updated texture with the bottom surface rotated as opposed to flipped may display incorrectly depending on the intended alignment with relation to the rest of the skin.

If trying to make a skin that has a transparent part, it will appear black in-game.

As of 25 Oct 2012, the skin service is not working, and they are working on fixing the problem.