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John Knoll (born October 6, 1962) is an American visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer (CCO) at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). One of the original creators of Adobe Photoshop (along with his brother, Thomas Knoll), 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 , as well as the series. Along with Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall, Knoll and the trio's work on earned them the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.79th Academy Awards#Awards
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 Academy Awards, and worked on two Star Trek episodes: s pilot episode ("Encounter at Farpoint") and the episode "".
Knoll had a cameo appearance in 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 that 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.
| 1986 | Captain EO | Motion control camera operator |
| Jared: The Movie | Motion control camera operator | |
| 1987 | Empire of the Sun | Motion control camera operator |
| Innerspace | Motion control camera operator | |
| 1988 | Willow | Motion control camera operator |
| 1989 | The Abyss | CG supervisor |
| 1990 | Spaced Invaders | visual effects supervisor |
| The Hunt for Red October | visual effects supervisor | |
| 1991 | Hook | visual effects supervisor |
| Hudson Hawk | visual effects supervisor | |
| 1994 | Baby's Day Out | visual effects supervisor |
| Star Trek Generations | visual effects supervisor | |
| 1996 | visual effects supervisor | |
| Visual effects supervisor | ||
| 1999 | Visual effects supervisor, onscreen cameo | |
| Deep Blue Sea | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2000 | Mission to Mars | visual effects supervisor |
| 2002 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2003 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2005 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2006 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2007 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2008 | Speed Racer | Visual effects supervisor |
| 2009 | Confessions of a Shopaholic | Visual effects supervisor |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Digital artist | |
| 2009 | Avatar | Visual effects supervisor |
| 2011 | Super 8 | Digital artist |
| Rango | Visual effects supervisor | |
| Hugo | Visual effects supervisor | |
| Visual effects supervisor | ||
| 2013 | Pacific Rim | Visual effects supervisor |
| 2015 | Tomorrowland | Visual effects supervisor |
| 2016 | Visual effects supervisor, executive producer, story | |
| 2018 | Ready Player One | Visual effects production |
| The Other Side of the Wind | Visual effects supervisor | |
| Aquaman | Production and technical support | |
| 2019 | 6 Underground | Additional visual effects supervisor |
| 2021 | Jungle Cruise | Visual effects supervisor |
| 2022 | The Batman | Visual effects production |
| 2023 | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Additional visual effects supervisor |
| 1987 | Motion control camera operator | |
| 2019-2023 | The Mandalorian | Additional visual effects supervisor |
| 2021-2022 | The Book of Boba Fett | Senior visual effects supervisor |
| 2024-2025 | Visual effects supervisor | |
| 2019 | 91st Academy Awards | Adobe Photoshop | Scientific and Engineering | Thomas Knoll and Mark Hamburg | ||
| 2017 | 89th Academy Awards | Rogue One | Visual Effects | Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould | ||
| 2008 | 80th Academy Awards | Visual Effects | Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier | |||
| 2007 | 79th Academy Awards | Visual Effects | Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall | |||
| 2004 | 76th Academy Awards | Visual Effects | Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Terry Frazee | |||
| 2003 | 75th Academy Awards | Visual Effects | Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman and Ben Snow | |||
| 2000 | 72nd Academy Awards | Visual Effects | Dennis Muren, Scott Squires and Rob Coleman | |||
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