Cinematic Visualization: Applying Hollywood to Science

The goal of visualization is to communicate science to an audience, whether it's to a group of peers, or to the general public. Cinematic/Impactful visualization uses techniques from movies and games to enhance that communication and provide a rich story-telling experience to explain science. With mis/disinformation spreading as quickly as the coronavirus itself, cinematic visualization has the ability to engage an audience quickly, hold their attention, and present science in a compelling manner. And along the way, we hope, restore some of the trust in science that has been lost in recent years. This talk will cover the basics of Cinematic Visualization, and how it differs from traditional Scientific Visualization. Additionally, it will cover the advanced rendering, lighting, and animation methodologies developed for games and movies, and how those techniques can be applied to scientific data.

Bio
Over Mark Bolstad's career he has worked in various scientific disciplines, from aerospace to environmental protection to biomedical and defense research. During his career he has led three different visualization labs and HPC teams. After more than 20 years in visualization and computer graphics, he returned to school to pursue a Ph.D while continuing to work and suffering a 5 hour daily commute. He graduated 10 years later with a Ph.D in Computer Science. Bolstad's thesis was on Rendering Massive Models, i.e., how do you render models that exceed 4 billion elements?