The Automation Ad Challenge
Melbourne, Australia, 2023:
Todd Howcroft is an up-and-coming ad executive, and he’s now in a prestigious enough position that his beat up old Holden isn’t doing him any favours, so he needs a new car.
The problem is, being a high-flying adman, Todd’s a bit of a wanker, and wants to flex specifically to his peers, and not to any sort of conventional taste. What that means is, he’ll be choosing his next car not because it’s fast, or stylish, or even good, but purely by the virtue of its ad.
THE CHALLENGE:
It’s slightly unconventional, but for this challenge you will be judged purely on your ad in the forums. That means there’s no .car submission required. Furthermore, you can make the ad for any car you want, with no restrictions (with the exception of nothing older than the 60’s, as older car ads were either not as interesting or harder to recreate in Auto).
It’s also going to be a pretty laid-back challenge too, with an emphasis on sharing tips on photography, presentation, CSS, etc to improve skills more than anything. There’s still a competitive aspect to it, but that’s purely to encourage people to participate :^)
The thinking behind this was both that I’m a trained photographer, and I see people making pretty fundamental mistakes with their photos in Auto either not realising it, or not understanding why people are complaining about their moody photos being too dark, and that having gone from no CSS to using CSS somewhat recently, not only is there a definite feeling that you get more attention with CSS, but also there’s a pretty big skill ceiling present that can be tough to crack.
So why not make a challenge focused on learning these things? And better yet, why not encourage people to help each other out with tips and advice!
RULES
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This challenge is purely based on your forum ads
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That means the cars themselves will no be judged.
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NO .CAR SUBMISSION IS REQUIRED. DON’T SEND ME ANYTHING.
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Submissions run from 2023-08-27T00:00:00Z→2023-10-08T23:59:00Z (click for your local times). A long window I know, but I figured an extra few weeks to get used to the new update when it drops would be a good idea, even if the changes aren’t really going to affect this challenge. No being lazy and using poster mode when it drops, though.
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Wheelbase, body style, etc are all free, there’s no limits to what you could submit (except shitposts, sorry Betterdeals)
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Your car can be anywhere from the 60’s to now, just make sure that your ad fits with your car and is of the time period (ie, not a used car ad, but the ad from when it was new).
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Ad can either be a full forum post, CSS and all, or an individual photo (think something like a full spread from a magazine or brochure, or a smaller ad just showing off your car). Individual photos will need something done with them, not just be a photo all on its own (again, think of a car ad, it’ll generally have a logo, tagline, and maybe even a company slogan on them).
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Automation photo mode pictures only. While you can edit them to your heart’s content, the photo of the car itself has to come from the photo mode. That means no BeamNG screenshots. If your computer can run Beam it can run Auto’s photo mode.
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Drafts are allowed (this is meant to be a challenge for improving skills after all!), just make sure to put !!!DRAFT!!! at the start of the post so I know not to count it.
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Raytracing or a lack thereof won’t make any difference, as it’s all about presentation (neither will graphics settings, but I HIGHLY recommend pumping them as much as your computer can handle anyway. Photo mode doesn’t have to run at even 30fps, you can make do with a lot lower).
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There will be both an overall winner and a best photo (I’m a photographer I can’t help it) awarded at the end
Tips and tricks
If you’ve got some advice or tips for making better ads or even just forum posts in general, please share them! I’ll start out with some basic tips below, and I’ll link other tips people post here so others can more easily find them. And don’t feel afraid to ask for advice either, the whole idea is to help people present their cars better!
Most importantly of all, remember to have fun! This isn’t meant to be a super serious challenge, just a way for you to learn how to make even better challenge entries!