Mechanisms are provided to implement an image based event classification engine having an event image encoder and a first neural network computer model. The event image encoder receives an event data structure comprising a plurality of event attributes, where the event data structure represents an event occurring in association with a computing resource. The event image encoder executes, for each event attribute, a corresponding event attribute encoder that encodes the event attribute as a pixel pattern in a predetermined grid of pixels, corresponding to the event attribute, of an event image. The event image is into to a neural network computer model which applies one or more image feature extraction operations and image feature analysis algorithms to the event image to generate a classification prediction classifying the event into one of a plurality of predefined classifications and outputs the classification prediction.