Ford GT Unwrapped/Textured

Here's a little storyboard of the progress so far today. I think it's ready to go into XNA so that'll be my next step.
First I separated my model into 'clusters' as the Mod Tool calls them. Basically they're just groups of selected polygons so the unwrap process goes a lot smoother. Once you get everything separated into clusters you can start unwrapping your model. You can see how I separated my clusters in the picture below.

It took awhile to unwrap but it's the first time I've done it in a couple years and the first time ever for Mod Tool. When I was done I found some more tips/suggestions from a tutorial I missed that would've helped a ton... Here is what my final unwrap looked like:

Pretty sloppy but I'm no artist/modeler and this is just a practice run to learn everything. Then I went into Photoshop and worked some magic and this was my final texture.

I know it's pretty awesome so you can ask for tips later. I just wanted to get the hang of unwrapping and texturing with Mod Tool so I know how it works for future reference. Next I'll work on a shader of some sort but I'm not really sure what I'll do. I have a basic understanding of shaders so I'll have to find a tutorial or sample somewhere to get me started. I know the XNA website has plenty of examples so I'll go through some there. Here's a few shots I rendered out from Mod Tool. Everything is default lighting and such so don't expect anything special!

Mod Tool Day 3

I finished my model as much as I'm going to go at this point so I can texture it tomorrow. I'm not very fast at modeling something good in a quick amount of time and I'm very picky so if I don't stop now there's always going to be something that just isn't quite right. I'm not a modeler anyways so I'll move on and see what I can get done tomorrow AND this model isn't going in a game so no need to improve it right now, I'll keep it as a side project.

I want to do a quick texture just so I can get the hang of it and get it thrown into XNA and maybe start working on some shaders. If I'm feeling lucky maybe I'll see how animations work and turn my car into a transformer. :)

Mod Tool Day 2

Here's a few pictures of what my Ford GT looks like. I haven't touched the back at all so that's why it's really boxy at the moment. The front end isn't quite where I'd like it but it's totally fine for now because this isn't actually going anywhere it's just for learning purposes so I can get a feel for how everything works. Feel free to comment if you want to point out some improvements or tips.

Mod Tool Day 1

Eventually we'll be jumping head first into the 3D world so I'm getting familiar with the Mod Tool (3D modeling) so I can help our modeler in getting things ready to import to XNA. And if our modeler gets overwhelmed, or has other priorities, I can jump it to get some assets created. I haven't touched a modeling program for at least 12 months (3DS Max) and I've never used Mod Tool before so I'm remembering/learning along the way. I figured I'd model a car since I think it's a relatively easy thing to start with.

Eventually I'll come to shaders/textures/importing to XNA but for now I'm just learning the tool. I won't post any pictures today because I basically only have a box with wheels. :)

FIFA hates technology

Someone in the #xna chat on efnet.org posted this picture and it was too good to pass up! Pretty much every sport has allowed technology to play some part in the decision making but FIFA seems pretty against it. Today I watched 2 terrible calls that could have been reversed, and should've been reversed, but they don't use replays or anything to help with their call making. The first one I watched was what should've been England's 2nd goal of their game vs Germany. As you can see in the picture above the ball clearly passed the line (well, not in the picture :P) but it wasn't called a goal. Then Argentina's 2nd goal was scored by someone who was 2+ yards offsides. That one caused a giant battle of words from both teams as they surrounded the referees as they discussed it.
Whatever their reason for not allowing technology to play a part things like these could be fixed in a matter of seconds by someone in a booth watching the game from above. The refs already use mics and such to communicate with each other so why not allow someone to chime in and reverse a call if needed?