Step-by-Step

 

In Paulo's example, he used the Chameleon preset that comes with MODO. So for the purpose of this exercise, we will too and assume you have setup your environment and lighting. 

• Drag in the Chameleon mesh preset.
• In the Shader tree, delete the preset textures that came in with the mesh, but keep just the 'Chameleon on Branch' folder.
• [dcs_emptyspace h="20"][dcs_emptyspace h="10"]Create a new material and set it to a vibrant colour.
• Right-click and duplicate the Chameleon Item Mesh and rename it Droplets.
• Apply a white material to the Droplets mesh and call it Condensation.

As there are now two meshes located in exactly the same space, turn off the original Chameleon. You will then see just the droplets material.

• Inside the Condensation material, go to Add Layer and insert the Pebbles texture (under Enhance:MODO Textures, Noise, Pebbles). The white areas will be where the droplets will appear on the mesh.
• [dcs_emptyspace h="20"]" width="“294"
• " height="“352"
• " />[dcs_emptyspace h="20"]To resize the droplets, go to the Texture Location tab under properties, and change Size X, Y, Z to 15 mm each.
• Under the Condensation Material change the Displacement Distance to 2 mm.
• Change the effect of the Pebble texture from Diffuse Color to Displacement.

The Pebble texture covers the entire mesh, however, you only want the droplets themselves to be visible, so you will need to make those parts that are not actual bubbles, invisible (i.e. the areas which lie flat against the skin).

• Duplicate the Pebbles texture, Invert it, and then change the Effect from Displacement to Stencil.
• With the Pebbles/Stencil effect texture selected, under the Texture Layers tab, increase the Bias to 100% to make the transition of the edges of each droplet sharper so that they touch the skin surface.
• Turn on the Chameleon mesh to view the results so far.
• To make the droplets transparent, apply a Water preset material (i.e. remove any displacement or bump layers) to the Condensation material. Drag it below the two pebbles textures.
• Change the Displacement Distance to 2 mm

To make the Chameleon metallic like Paulo did, change the material to 0% Diffuse, check Conserve Energy, Specular 20%, reflections 80%, check Blurry reflections.

With the supplied hoverbike, rider and terrain, this series shows how you can create dust particles and get them to kick-up when the hover bike flies by. 

 

Advanced camera handles

• In the Perspective viewport, select your camera and activate the transform tool (W)
• Then in the Toolpipe, right-click the '=' sign in the 'V' column and select Advanced

• You'll see some extra handles appear on the camera that will allow you to drag and focus

 

Autofocus under mouse

• In the Render viewport, position your mouse on the spot where you want your camera to focus
• Click Ctrl-F and the camera will fire the 'camera.autofocusUnderMouse' command

As shown in the image above;

• Create a cube. Select one poly face and under the Polygon tools tab, select Sketch Extrude and drag out from the blue dot for the required length, making multiple, even stops along the way.
• (Alternatively, simply drag out a cube that is say, 1x1x10)
• In poly-mode, double-click on the item to select all polygons.
• Under the Polygon tab, click on the Spikey tool, then click on the object. Each face will be sub-divided into 4 tris.
• Whilst still selected, click on Bevel (B) (make sure Group Polygons is unchecked), and then drag the red-handle in slightly.
• Press backspace or Delete to remove the inside polygons.
• That's it!
• If you want to add some thickness, whilst still selected, click on the Thicken tool and drag slightly.