John Knoll


John Knoll is an American visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic.

Career

One of the original creators of Adobe Photoshop, he has also worked as visual effects supervisor on the Star Wars prequels and the 1997 special editions of the original trilogy. He also served as ILM's visual effects supervisor for Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact, as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Along with Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall, Knoll and the trio's work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned them the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Knoll has been praised by directors James Cameron, Gore Verbinski, Guillermo del Toro, and Brad Bird. Del Toro, who worked with Knoll for the first time on Pacific Rim, stated "He basically has the heart of a kid and the mind of a scientist, and that's a great combination."
Knoll is also the inventor of Knoll Light Factory, a lens flare generating software inspired by his work at Industrial Light and Magic. He was the Computer Graphics Project Designer on The Abyss, an achievement which earned ILM its tenth Oscar, and worked on two Star Trek episodes: Star Trek: The Next Generations pilot episode and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Explorers".
Knoll had a cameo appearance in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as a fighter pilot, helped pitch the story of Rogue One, a feature film set in the Star Wars series, for which he also worked as writer and executive producer.
John Knoll reflected on his work with George Lucas on the Star Wars prequel trilogy: "I still feel like I owe George a lot to have been given that opportunity. On those three films, I feel like I got a whole career's worth of experience packed into eight years. George never constricted his thinking to what he knew for sure the tools were capable of; his attitude was, "Yeah, well, I'm writing what I want to see, so you guys will figure it out." I loved that he would constantly throw those challenges out with the confidence you guys will figure it out. That was great."
In 2016, John Knoll and his brother Thomas were inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.
At the 2019 Oscars, John and his brother Thomas were awarded a Scientific and Engineering Award for the original architecture, design and development of Photoshop.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleNotes
1986Captain EOMotion control camera operator
1986Jared: The MovieMotion control camera operator
1987Empire of the SunMotion control camera operator
1987InnerspaceMotion control camera operator
1988WillowMotion control camera operator
1989The AbyssCG supervisor
1990Spaced Invadersvisual effects supervisor
1990The Hunt for Red Octobervisual effects supervisor
1991Hookvisual effects supervisor
1991Hudson Hawkvisual effects supervisor
1994Baby's Day Outvisual effects supervisor
1994Star Trek Generationsvisual effects supervisor
1996Mission: Impossiblevisual effects supervisor
1996Star Trek: First ContactVisual effects supervisor
1999Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenaceVisual effects supervisor, onscreen cameo
1999Deep Blue SeaVisual effects supervisor
2000Mission to Marsvisual effects supervisor
2002Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the ClonesVisual effects supervisor
2003Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlVisual effects supervisor
2005Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the SithVisual effects supervisor
2006Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestVisual effects supervisor
2007Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's EndVisual effects supervisor
2008Speed RacerVisual effects supervisor
2009Confessions of a ShopaholicVisual effects supervisor
2009Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceDigital artist
2009AvatarVisual effects supervisor
2011Super 8Digital artist
2011RangoVisual effects supervisor
2011HugoVisual effects supervisor
2011Mission: Impossible – Ghost ProtocolVisual effects supervisor
2013Pacific RimVisual effects supervisor
2015TomorrowlandVisual effects supervisor
2016Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryVisual effects supervisor, executive producer, story
2018Ready Player OneVisual effects production
2018The Other Side of the WindVisual effects supervisor
2018AquamanProduction and technical support
20196 UndergroundAdditional visual effects supervisor
2021Jungle CruiseVisual effects supervisor
2022The BatmanVisual effects production
2023Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyAdditional visual effects supervisor

Television

Awards

Books

  • John Knoll, J. W. Rinzler: Creating the Worlds of Star Wars: 365 Days with CDROM; Book about the Making of the Star Wars Saga;