I just wanted to post how a design can be a surprise hit in the community.
I posted a fairly basic design for the Lotus Elise and it’s earned me 1085 downloads, 353 likes & 3235 uses! I spent a few hours perfecting the design, so it wasn’t a quick post but I’m just shocked how a design can permeate the Forza world.
To those painters that want to earn more credits, basic designs can go very far if you hit on something!
Also if you want downloads, choose wisely your car model. Some are usually used like the Elise for instance, some you never see.
I do the same. I painted the Elise for myself with a Nikon logo but then decided to offer a plain version and it just took off. I only paint what I want to drive, it’s more fun that way and it keeps me interested.
The same apply to me
yea same here, plain car, no base design, all premade logos, outsells anything ive spent hours on. But im only driving the cars that took me hours to paint. Its all ok
I paint all of my cars to a quality that I find acceptable for me to drive, with that in mind I have noticed a significant download gap between some of my cars. It really all depends on which cars are used more than others. My Larbre Competition Corvette for instance was painted on a rather popular car and has garnered me thousands of downloads, various M1 ProCars of mine that were released at the same time have had far less downloads. Just paint what the people want or paint what you like and if they overlap…well, good for you!
Livery comps. That’s the only way to get downloads if you aren’t a Forza paint veteran and already have a name for yourself. I have paints on FM5 that have into the 25,000+ downloads that have 50 downloads on FM6
I’ve started to paint in FM6, so I can’t say how it was before but :
you have downloads only a few days when your car is proposed as new, then no more downloads since your paint is gone to the limbo. To be honest, searching a paint is not very friendly. Browsing for paints is so slow and so painful. And I miss the old front store.
So yes the livery comps should assure that your paint is always proposed but I’ve noticed that’s not forever (I’ve already searched winners paint with the search function because they we’re no more proposed in the front page). And livery competitions were every week at start, now maybe every two weeks and I paint faster than that ^^
Still I like to paint mostly for myself and some friends 
I haven’t bothered with the comps in Fm6 yet, but it looks like I’m going to have to. Although some paints I haven’t posted even in my paint thread seem to take off just from sharing in the game. It’s really hit or miss, and no pattern why.
How do you guys mean by designs taking off? It’s difficult to have a reference point because to me taking off is a hundred plus downloads while it means nothing to other painters.
I’ve painted since Forza 2. I never enter the comps. I was in one of the InFocus write ups and got sick of all the random messages and requests, so changed my GT. Sometimes life is more enjoyable below the radar. I even stopped showcasing designs on the forums. Just let the designs sell themselves. Just paint what you like and use. If others happen to like them its a bonus.