John Knoll John A . Knoll from Ann Arbor , Michigan , United States , is an Academy Award winning visual effects artist , best known for his work on the " " and at Industrial Light & Magic . He also worked on several " Star Trek " episodes and films . He was the visual effects supervisor on and and had earlier designed the warp effect of the for . He is also believed to have inserted a small digital model of the " Millennium Falcon " into the Battle of Sector 001 in " First Contact " . Knoll served as visual effects supervisor for the three new " Star Wars " films , personally creating the of each and making cameos in the and installments . He also created the acclaimed CGI model of the Bajoran lightship for the popular third season episode and rendered it again for the fourth season episode . In the " " , he notes that , although he was busy with " Star Trek Generations " , for which he built the first version of the CGI " Enterprise " - D model , and " Mission : Impossible " , he found the time to create the lightship CGI model as he felt it was a cool design . Knoll later worked on the Work Bee s , the starship with the blue engines and the Deep Space 9 engineers wearing environmental suit s seen in the new " Deep Space Nine " title sequence that first appeared in . ( " " ) He was interviewed for the special feature " Industrial Light & Magic : The Next Generation " on the DVD of . His work with ILM on " First Contact " earned him a Saturn Award nomination as well as a Golden Satellite Award nomination in the visual effects categories . " Star Wars " . Knoll was the visual effects supervisor on the 1997 special edition releases of the two films and . He also worked as visual effects supervisor on the prequel trilogy ( 1999 ) , ( 2002 ) , and ( 2005 ) . In the first and third films of the prequel trilogy , Knoll had small cameo parts . For the first two films he also received his first two Academy Award nominations in 2000 and 2003 for Best Visual Effects , the first shared with Scott Squires and Rob Coleman and the second with Rob Coleman and Ben Snow . The team from the prequel trilogy received several more awards and nominations for their work : two Saturn Awards ( 2000 and 2003 ) , one Saturn Award nomination ( 2006 ) , a BAFTA Film Award nomination in 2000 , a Video Premiere Award nomination in 2001 , a Phoenix Film Critics Society Award nomination in 2003 , a Satellite Award in 2005 , and three Visual Effects Society Award nominations in 2003 and 2006 . Knoll served as a writer and executive producer for the 2016 film " Rogue One " , the first " Star Wars " anthology film . Non - " Trek " work . Knoll and his brother Thomas created . In 2007 , " Entertainment Weekly " named John Knoll as the 10th Smartest Person in Hollywood . Beside his work on " Star Trek " and " Star Wars " , Knoll worked for ILM on the science fiction comedy " Innerspace " ( 1987 ) , the fantasy adventure " Willow " ( 1988 ) , the adventure " The Abyss " ( 1989 ) , the thriller " The Hunt for Red October " ( 1990 ) , the comedy " Baby ' s Day Out " ( 1994 ) , the action film " Mission : Impossible " ( 1996 ) , the science fiction thriller " Deep Blue Sea " ( 1999 ) , and the science fiction film " Mission to Mars " ( 2000 ) . He then worked as visual effects supervisor on the three " Pirates of the Caribbean " films between 2003 and 2007 for which he earned two Academy Award nominations in 2004 and 2008 for Best Visual Effects / Best Achievement in Visual Effects . He shared the first one with Terry D . Frazee . In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for the second " Pirates " film , " Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man ' s Chest " . Knoll also received three Visual Effects Society Award nominations in 2004 and 2008 and two wins in 2007 , a Golden Satellite Award nomination in 2004 and a Satellite Award in 2006 , a Phoenix Film Critics Society Award nomination in 2004 , a Hollywood Film Award in 2006 , two BAFTA Film Award nominations in 2004 and 2008 , a BAFTA Film Award in 2007 , two Saturn Award nominations in 2004 and 2008 , and a Saturn Award in 2007 . More recent work for ILM includes the fantasy adventure " Harry Potter and the Half - Blood Prince " ( 2009 ) , James Cameron ' s science fiction film " Avatar " ( 2009 , starring Zoe Saldana ) , and the action sequel " Mission : Impossible – Ghost Protocol " ( 2011 , co - written by J . J . Abrams ) . For " Avatar " , Knoll was again nominated for a Visual Effects Society Award for Best Single Visual Effect of the Year , shared with Jill Brooks , Frank Losasso Petterson , and Tory Mercer . " Star Trek " awards . Knoll received the following award nominations for his work on " Star Trek "