John Knoll

Who is John Knoll?

John Knoll is a visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. 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. His work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned him 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."

A co-developer of Photoshop along with his brother Thomas Knoll, Knoll is also the inventor of Knoll Light Factory, a lens flare generating software inspired by his work at Industrial Light and Magic.