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Side panels: symmetry, drafts, history, templates, cape and more

Copy a limb to the other side, load starter skins and clothing, add face stamps, use a reference picture, find hidden pixels, adjust colours, keep drafts and make a cape.

7 min read · 7 steps · Intermediate

Step 1: Where the panels are

Scroll down the side panel of the editor. Every section opens and closes with a click on its name.

All side panel sections

  1. Import skin: type a Minecraft Java player name and press Import to load their skin (and cape). Your current skin is kept in Drafts.
  2. Symmetry, Palette, Layers, Drafts, Cape, History, Templates & stamps, Reference image, Skin check.
  3. Adjustments: brightness and more for the whole skin.

Step 2: Symmetry: copy a limb

Painted one arm and want the other one the same? Open Symmetry, choose Base, Overlay or Both, then Right → Left or Left → Right for the arms or legs.

Flip part upside down turns the selected part over. Mirror X / Mirror Y are here too.

The Symmetry panel

  1. The Symmetry panel.

Step 3: Templates & stamps

Starter skins replace the whole skin with Starter Steve, Starter Alex or a Blank body.

Clothing in your colour adds a T-shirt, long sleeves, hoodie, pants, shorts, shoes, belt, gloves or a cap — in your current colour.

Face stamps add eyes (Classic, Big, Anime, Happy, Sleepy, Glowing), mouths, brows and extras with one click.

Templates & stamps, Reference image and Skin check

  1. Starter skins.
  2. Clothing in your colour.
  3. Face stamps: eyes, mouths, brows, extras.
  4. Reference image.
  5. Skin check.

Step 4: Reference image and Skin check

Reference image: press Load image to add a picture (a character, a photo, another skin) to look at while you paint. It stays on your device. Change swaps it and × removes it.

Choose where it shows: Here (in the panel), Floating (a small window over the corner of the canvas — works in 3D too; drag it to move, drag the corner to resize, or set Size) or Trace (laid faintly over the 2D texture so you can copy it; set how see-through with See-through).

Palette from this image turns the picture's main colours into a new palette — see the guide Image to colour palette.

Skin check lists what Minecraft will show differently from the editor, each with a one-click fix:

• See-through overlay pixels (half-transparent hat / jacket pixels): Make solid or Remove. • Holes in the base layer (they show up black in game): Fill from neighbours. • Pixels outside the skin layout (never shown in game): Clear them.

Show selects those pixels, so they light up on the 3D model and only they can be edited until you clear the selection. When everything is fine it says Looks good.

Step 5: Drafts, history and adjustments

Drafts: your skin is auto-saved as a draft. Click the restore arrow to go back to one (your current skin is kept as a draft too), or delete drafts you don't need.

History: every change shows up here; click a step to jump back to it. The first row goes back to before your first step. Undone steps stay greyed out — click one to redo up to there.

Adjustments: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Highlights, Hue, Shadows, Gamma and Invert Colors change the whole skin at once. Press More adjustments to see them all.

Step 6: Make a cape

Open Cape and press Make a cape. The cape shows on the 3D model and downloads as its own PNG (64×32) from Upload / Export → More → Cape PNG.

Press Edit cape to open the Cape editor. It has a Pencil, Eraser, Fill (stays inside one part) and Pick a colour, plus Undo. Every part is labelled: Outside, Inside, Edges, Top, Bottom and the Elytra.

Start from gives a ready cape in your colour and your second colour: Solid, Gold trim, Stripe, Fade, Checker or Shaded.

Same on both sides copies what you paint on the outside to the inside (flipped), and the other way round. Show on the model hides or shows it in 3D, Upload cape PNG loads a cape file and Remove cape deletes it.

Step 7: Hair shading tip

In Templates & stamps, open Hair shading tip for a quick how-to: use 3 shades of one colour (light, middle, dark), light on top where light hits, dark at the tips and in thin 1–2 pixel strands.

The Shade tool (Darken / Lighten) or the Hair face stamps make the strands quickly. For 3D volume, paint a few hair pixels on the hat layer too.

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