Design A Holo-Screen Advert

Will Flanagan

Product Manager
Frontier
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Hello Commanders,

Holo-screen adverts are just one of the ways that the system-spanning mega corporations reach out and service their trillions of intergalactic customers… and we’re giving you the chance to design some of them!

You can be as creative as you like as long as the image is related to Elite Dangerous. We’re not looking for faction recruitment posters, but general themes can include exploration, Superpower propaganda, ingame brands, and galaxy-wide initiatives. That said, these rules are flexible and if you have an incredible idea, please feel free to submit it!

We’ll take our favourite submissions and incorporate (pun intended) them into the game as a holo-screen advert in a future update. You can find all the details about the contest below.

Timeframe
The event will run from 13 April to 15 May (2018), with entry submissions closing at 4:00 PM (BST).

Advert Specifications
For an advert to properly be considered, it must adhere to the following conditions:

  • Landscape adverts must be at 2:1 ratio
  • Portrait adverts must be at 1:2 ratio
  • Resolution: 2048 x 1024
  • We will need three types of image:
    • - The overall image will be made up of two layers of background and foreground images that make up the advert. The foreground image will contain the parts of the hologram (such as text), which are offset from the background in a 3D space.
      - A third flattened version (containing both background and foreground images) will be required to judge the overall advert.
      - Please submit all three layers (background, foreground and flattened images) as separate image files.
      - Please retain the 'master' files for your entries in case we need to contact you about them.
  • Black is considered transparent. Darker areas in the image will render more transparently (with black being completely transparent).
  • Adverts need to contain content relevant to the Elite universe, past games included.
  • Bear in mind that images will be run through the hologram shader, which pixelates the image into Red/Green/Blue spots close-up. Therefore the size of text and fine details needs to be taken into consideration.
  • No copyrighted material/fonts to be included in the ad.
  • In your submission email, please include the list of fonts used in the image.

How to enter the contest?
Please email your submissions by clicking <a href="mailto:community@frontier.co.uk?subject=Elite%20Dangerous%20-%20Advert%20Contest%20-%20Submission">here</a>.
Your subject of the email IS REQUIRED to say: "Elite Dangerous - Advert Submission - Contest"

How will winners be picked?
Once the submission period closes, an expert panel of the Elite Dangerous dev team will review entries and we will select a number of winners who will appear ingame. Selected adverts will be incorporated into the game as a holo-screen advert in a future update.

Terms and Conditions
  • You can submit as many adverts (entries) as you like.
  • All submissions must adhere to the specifications listed above to be considered.
  • The competition closes on Tuesday, May 15 at 4:00 PM BST.
  • Objectionable or offensive content will be disqualified.
  • No submission should violate the Elite Dangerous EULA and TOS.
  • Frontier Developments reserve the right to edit/adjust/alter images as we see fit.
  • Frontier Developments has the right to remove any entry at their sole discretion
  • Frontier Developments will own the copyright of any text or image used in the advert if incorporated into the game and will have the full rights to use the image in any promotional material or future ingame activity.
  • Frontier Developments has the final word on submitted adverts and winners will be announced after the event.


Example:

Background

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Foreground

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----------------------------------------------------

Please submit images in a non compressed file format. Png is ideal.

The way our holographic shader works, the darker a pixel is, the more transparent it is rendered in game. Therefore black (or dark coloured text) probably won't show up very clearly. Light coloured text or elements will show up better, particularly for the foreground image. An example of this would be the Caine Massey mining advert you can see in game already.

Horizontal adverts need to have a pixel resolution of 2048x1024, vertical adverts 1024x2048.
 
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Have to say this is better than screen shot of the week, ive made many a banner for many games this makes me want to boot up Photoshop and the like not done anything creative for a while.
 
While I would love to see those, I can see the salt flowing as soon as they would announce "no faction ads, apart from these few selected exceptions". IMHO it should be either all or none.

Faction recruitment ads. Neither Fuel Rats or Buckyball Racing Club requires to be or to support PF.
 
Sounds something that's OK

Galaxy-wide initiatives is vague. As in, all the galaxy taking part? Spanning the entire Galaxy? In that case, I can consider my own solo exploration trips galaxy wide initiatives.

While I would love to see those, I can see the salt flowing as soon as they would announce "no faction ads, apart from these few selected exceptions". IMHO it should be either all or none.

Yeah, my concern as well.

Wonder if a Distant Worlds 2 ad would be relevant. Still a long way to departure.
 
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While I would love to see those, I can see the salt flowing as soon as they would announce "no faction ads, apart from these few selected exceptions". IMHO it should be either all or none.

Neither the Buckyball Racing Club nor the Galactic Mapping Project are factions. The Fuel Rats on the other hand setup a PMF in the Fuelem system if I recall. That would, unfortunately, disqualify them though an argument could be made that the PMF and the Fuel Rat movement are separate things.

It would be kind of sad if there wasn't a Fuel Rats advert. :(
 
Galaxy-wide initiatives is vague. As in, all the galaxy taking part? Spanning the entire Galaxy? In that case, I can consider my own solo exploration trips galaxy wide initiatives.

I think there's no point to overthink this. I believe If ad will a) call to action to do something interesting in game for large part of community b) will be any good it will be approved. Is it scanning our galaxy for every system down to small detail or is it cheeky ad for 'don't fly without rebuy' - everything will go :)

Said that, I am starting to think to try my own luck here :)

Neither the Buckyball Racing Club nor the Galactic Mapping Project are factions. The Fuel Rats on the other hand setup a PMF in the Fuelem system if I recall. That would, unfortunately, disqualify them though an argument could be made that the PMF and the Fuel Rat movement are separate things.

It would be kind of sad if there wasn't a Fuel Rats advert. :(

To be fair ad about Fuel Rats most likely won't be recruitment so it might qualify.
 
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