Last Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have Eric Wills of the computer science department come and talk about the fascinating world of computer graphics. During his talk, Eric broke down bloom lighting.

See how the light from the window seems to melt onto the surrounding frame? That bright blue is the bloom.

It was interesting to see how the algorithm records pixel data but does it in a non-linear fashion so that we humans cannot detect patterns which would make the lighting effect seem forged.

Eric also had some company along for the ride. Shelby Wills, a producer at Pipeworks studio, and their son Finley. Shelby talked about her role as a producer in the changing landscape of the video-game industry. Personally, it was fascinating to hear about how consoles are not the way of the future, and how other game platforms such as mobile phones and the web are taking charge.

Is this the future of the video game industry?

Even after Eric, Shelby, and Finley departed, the Think.Play crew hung out and digested topics of the night for another hour or so. Now that is a sign of a great event.

In other news, Retro Night was last night! Unfortunately, I did not make it, but there should be a post going up sometime to detail all the wonders of the 8-bit era gaming session. Until next time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Events.  Tagged Bloom lighting, lighting effect, mobile games, Pipeworks, social games, video game industry You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.