Film & TV / Science & invention
John Knoll
born 1962 · visual effects supervisor, co-creator of Photoshop
Oscar-winning Industrial Light & Magic effects supervisor and co-creator of Adobe Photoshop, born and raised in Ann Arbor, where his brother wrote the first version.
- Born
Ann Arbor, Michigan
age 63- Detroit years
- 1962–c. 1980
- Field
- Film & TV, Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John Knoll was born in Ann Arbor in 1962 and grew up there, attending Huron High School, before heading to the University of Southern California's film school. He joined Industrial Light & Magic in the 1980s. In 1987 his older brother Thomas, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, wrote a program on his Macintosh Plus in Ann Arbor to display grayscale images; John saw its potential for film work, pushed him to add image-editing tools and a proper interface, and sold the distribution license to Adobe in 1988. The result was Photoshop, which changed photography, design and filmmaking; the brothers received a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for it in 2019. At ILM Knoll supervised effects for the Star Wars prequels and the 1997 special editions, won the visual effects Oscar for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and pitched the story that became Rogue One (2016). He is ILM's chief creative officer.
Highlights
- Co-created Adobe Photoshop with his brother Thomas (1987–1988)
- Academy Award for visual effects, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
- Conceived the story of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- Sci-Tech Academy Award for Photoshop (2019)
- Grew up in Ann Arbor; Huron High School
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · late 1970s
Huron High School
Ann Arbor public high school Knoll attended (per Wikidata).