Which pixels are affected
A 64 × 64 skin has two layers for every body part:
- Base layer (head, body, arms, legs): always drawn solid. Transparency here is ignored.
- Outer layer (hat, jacket, sleeves, trouser legs): pixels can be fully transparent, which is how hats and jackets show the base layer underneath.
Image editors often store a fully transparent pixel as transparent black. Once the game ignores the transparency, the black is what you see.
How to fix it
- Fill every pixel of the base layer. Paint skin or clothing colour where you had gaps.
- Move see-through details, like glasses frames, holes in clothing or floating hair, to the outer layer.
- Avoid half-transparent pixels. Use pixels that are either fully opaque or fully transparent, so the result is predictable.
- Open the file in the Skin Viewer. It draws the base layer solid like the game does, so black patches show up before you upload.
The skin format reference shows which areas of the image belong to which layer.
Old 64 × 32 skins
Old-format skins only have an outer layer for the head. If that hat area contains no transparent pixels at all, the game ignores the whole hat layer. A completely filled hat area therefore doesn’t show up as a box around the head.
Bedrock Edition
Bedrock handles skin transparency differently, so a skin that looks right in one edition can look different in the other. Check it in the edition you play.