It really boils down to the artstyle and what Chris said there. Regarding specular, well that goes under shader part. If default model isn't good enough for your material you are able to make custom lighting models that might be better for that specific material type. Like cloth for example…
did you guys see this http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?162584-Carver-s-Sketchbook-%28tutorial-added-Pg-4%29&p=1030280&viewfull=1#post1030280 pretty clean way to quickly get your guides in place
I can't imagine the mesh is a single plane if it has 280 tris, hahaha. How did you go about creating the mesh for this? Super interesting and looks pretty good :)
I prefer ratatouille than cars anytime but http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2813405/Disney-revenues-hit-by-Ratatouille.html good things is not always financially successful :( while cars, it has many kiddy character and mc-d can sell pixars merchandise which is profit more. so its quite dilema
Looking good so far, though I'd like to point out that your Canadian flag is backwards, for example: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_Loma_July_2010_23_%28Canadian_Red_Ensign,_Great_Hall%29.JPG. Both sides should be a mirror image of each other.
I think BurgZerg has quite a bit of video tutorials. I look at lots of tutorials on youtube, and then there is stuff on Unity Cookie as well. http://www.youtube.com/user/BurgZergArcade/videos http://cgcookie.com/unity/ For basic categories that could be useful. Look up how to use arrays and learn how to use delegates.…
Breathless is pretty awesome http://asianmediawiki.com/Breathless_%282009-South_Korea%29 its not pure revenge there lots of oter stuff int here too theres more but my brain cant think without coffee