 john knoll' (born 1962) is a 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 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 thatâs 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. knoll was also the computer graphics project designer on the abyss, an achievement which earned ilm its tenth academy award for visual effects, and worked on two star trek episodes - star trek: the next generations pilot episode ("encounter at farpoint") and the star trek: deep space nine episode "explorers". his brother is thomas knoll and their father
1962_births Best_Visual_Effects_Academy_Award_winners Computer_graphics_professionals Disney_people Living_people People_from_Ann_Arbor,_Michigan Special_effects_people University_of_Southern_California_alumni Visual_effects_supervisors