March Automation Challenge VISUAL POLL!

[Taylor Martin]

Hello, and welcome to the official start of this month's @Automation festivities.

Sorry I didn't get around to posting this sooner, but better late than never I suppose.

As you're likely well aware, this month our contestants were tasked with building total pieces of junk... and while it's going to be strange to judge these cars visually, that's exactly what you're going to do!

I'd suggest basing your criteria around how terrible the cars look in terms of condition. Base it on how much the car really looks like a POS. They're all pretty terrible, but some are more terrible than others.

Go cast your vote by clicking this totally unsuspicious link!

Sorry there are no photos or anything on this particular post. Kind of phoning this in as I only had time to write this first thing in the morning and need to leave for work in... five minutes ago.

Also meant to schedule this post for noon so it wouldn't get burried, but I forgot... oh well, it's up now.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@Taylor-Martin Wow, some of these are, well, terrible! Meaning they scored very high. The location you used for the photos was a little dark but I managed.

[facw]

@Automation I'm reasonably proud of mine, so here's a list of broken shit on my car (The Atlantic Influence):

• Faded and dirty plastic trim, inside and out (blue door has better plastic)
• Faded/cloudy paint (mismatched red hood and blue door are in slightly better shape)
• Rusty exhaust/suspension/brakes
• Cracked and damaged front bumper
• Missing lower grill mesh
• Missing some upper grill slats
• Burnt out headlight
• Missing sealed beam units
• Dangling radiator
• Broken slats on hood vent
• Rusty wiper arms
• Cracked windshield
• Broken mirror
• Ripped bolstering on driver's seat
• Faded and dirty interior surfaces
• Rusty junkyard steelies (let's say the originals are damaged but in the trunk, since I need them to count towards the scrap value)
• Mismatched passenger door
• Rear driver's side door handle broken off
• Rear passenger side window missing its glass
• Fuel door missing
• Antenna broken off
• Many taillights burnt out and/or missing lenses
• License plate hanging on by a screw
• Cracked rear bumper
• Camry dent?

Anyway, a bunch of these aren't visible from these angles, but I think I spread the damage around well enough that it looks like a proper piece of shit!

A couple of other shots so people can see more:

And in better days:

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@Taylor-Martin
The attention to detail on some cars was impressive. However, I was very taken by some entries that were clearly awful cars to begin with...only then made much much worse.

[HFV_Junkyardin]

@Taylor-Martin Here's some shots of the Renard II in its natural habitat.

[facw]

@HFV How did you do the rusty rockers? That's a neat effect.

[HFV_Junkyardin]

@facw a combination of cutouts, and the little fireball looking graphic. if you look at the rust hole on the fender it's more obvious
also i was missing a shot of my favorite detail, this knocked over antenna complete with wires.
that grease drip from the gas cap is a couple of the mountain decals.

[t0ast]

Gotta share some other shots of the Potentate as well . The concept here was basically a 70s Crown-Vic-like sedan that had led a rough life, culminating in this Frankenstein "restoration". Part cars would be cheap and plentiful, but the person involved with this one didn't exactly sweat the color-matching, or differences/fitment of the little cosmetic changes the manufacturer made over the years.

Also what's a build like this without shuffling the badge letters around to make yourself an amusing Midwestern anagram?

The "4x4" decals don't lie either. It was still an era of body-on-frame sedans after all, so I figured why not give it some truck-like hardware underneath? Remarkably, it didn't harm its scores too much, so it got to stay.

As alluded to in previous posts, Conforming Cutout fixtures did most of the heavy lifting here, as they basically do what they say on the tin: They replace the surface you put them on and mostly follow its original contours. That "mostly" part led to some happy accidents like giving the black front fender a sloppy/patchwork look to it.

The rest was mostly spinning off a large number of different paint jobs. Some entirely different, and some just a little off from the body color. Most of them are cloth textures with high roughness to give them a worn out, sun-faded sort of look, with other metallic surfaces given some extra dirtiness, bumpiness, and scratches.

Remarkably, the "paints" look even crappier in Beam, so mission accomplished, I suppose.

[facw]

@HFV Hmm, I didn't even consider that the decals might look like things...

[facw]

@t0ast The pealing clear coat on the roof looks good. I wanted that effect for my car, but couldn't get it to work.

[t0ast]

@facw I was hoping to accomplish it in such a way that it could show up for Automation photos, but couldn't quite figure anything out. Stumbling into that effect after exporting to Beam was just another one of those happy accidents . That said, there's gotta be some way to lay on some semi-transparent shapes to screw with the underlying paint, but ran out of time before I could explore that idea much further.

[t0ast]

@HFV Clever, I like it. All those cool little details working on the unconventional body shape made it one of my favorites in the poll.

[t0ast]

@facw said in March Automation Challenge VISUAL POLL!:

@Automation I'm reasonably proud of mine, so here's a list of broken shit on my car (The Atlantic Influence):

• Burnt out headlight
• Missing sealed beam units
• Cracked windshield
• Rear passenger side window missing its glass
• Fuel door missing
• Antenna broken off
• Many taillights burnt out and/or missing lenses
• Cracked rear bumper
• Camry dent?

So many of the things on this list had me going "man, I wish I had thought of that", especially the missing / non-functional lighting fixtures that a handful of people figured out.

[GrindIntoSecond]

@Taylor-Martin wow very interesting selections. This poll will most likely show results of the skill or desire to mess with textures and 3D parts functions of each item. Showing bent antennas, hanging mirrors, rusty wheels and especially fender rash, missing lens plastic or glass on lights. And that is where I scored the car lower if it looked too good….like, maybe it sat for only 5 yards and not 30. Or was still a daily driver. Good rocker rust and fender rash was difficult for me so I left it out and concentrated on paint textures and 3D item tweaking.

These will be fun to drive, and HEAR with the missing mufflers and cats when on the track.

The delay in the racing means I’m at work…and wont be able to really enjoy the crappy fun. But, well see, perhaps the IT game issues may delay start until 1:45am Eastern Monday morning when I get a hotel on the west coast. Then I cAn PlAy !!

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@t0ast
Safe to say that, visually, this was my pick...and your images reinforce my feeling. I did giggle when I saw the mismatched and misaligned headlights...

[Brickman]

@Taylor-Martin yay! You got me signal light bulb working

Couple more pics

And what it would look like brand new in 1974

[CaptDale - is secretly British]

@WhoIsTheLeader Is 10 best terrible looking so thus the most junk, or is 10 the least bad looking and therefore not as junk?

[Taylor Martin]

@facw It's amazing how much detail you put into this, and also amazing how much detail BeamNG is going to tear away from it.

[Taylor Martin]

@HFV Those are super creative ways to use the stickers. Props to you my friend.

[Taylor Martin]

@GrindIntoSecond said in March Automation Challenge VISUAL POLL!:

These will be fun to drive, and HEAR with the missing mufflers and cats when on the track.

Did you not listen to the teaser I posted?

[Taylor Martin]

@Brickman That's a good looking piece of Americana... oh how the mighty have fallen.

[Taylor Martin]

@CaptDale-is-secretly-British 10 is best effort to look terrible. Think of it as if you're judging the quality of the sculpting, even if they're super ugly sculptures.

[HFV_Junkyardin]

@Brickman thats a Ford Granada.
Which isn't a bad thing. As that was the prompt

[Brickman]

@HFV I forgot those existed Actually I was using a 74 Plymouth Valiant as inspiration, but I do see how it looks like a Granada, especially the front.