John Knoll Quotes

Powerful John Knoll for Daily Growth

About John Knoll

John Knoll (born October 6, 1962) is an American visual effects supervisor, filmmaker, and co-creator of digital editing software Adobe After Effects, a cornerstone of modern filmmaking. Raised in the rural town of Whitley County, Indiana, Knoll was fascinated by films and art from an early age. He would frequently visit Indianapolis to see movies, absorbing the cinematic techniques that would later influence his career. In 1983, Knoll graduated from Purdue University with a degree in computer graphics and quickly found work at Lucasfilm's Computer Division, now known as Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd., where he worked alongside George Lucas, Steve Jobs, and other pioneers of the digital age. Here, he co-created Adobe After Effects, which revolutionized visual effects and motion graphics for film, television, and digital media. In 1995, Knoll transitioned from software development to visual effects supervision, working on groundbreaking films like "Jurassic Park," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace." His work on these movies garnered him Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects. Knoll's creativity extends beyond digital effects, as he also directed and co-wrote the short film "Prologue" in 2005, a live-action, stereoscopic 3D short that showcased state-of-the-art visual technology. His most recent project is the development of the VOID, a virtual reality experience park that combines interactive storytelling with cutting-edge technology. Throughout his career, John Knoll's innovative spirit and technical prowess have significantly impacted the film industry, pushing boundaries in visual effects and digital media. His work continues to inspire new generations of filmmakers and artists.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

This quote by John Knoll underscores the importance of passion in achieving greatness. It suggests that true excellence can only be attained when one deeply loves their work, as passion fuels dedication, motivation, and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. Therefore, loving what you do is not just about enjoyment, but it also sets the stage for outstanding performance and significant accomplishments.

"The best stories are the ones that don't feel like stories at all."

This quote by John Knoll suggests that the most compelling narratives are those that seamlessly blend with life, making them feel more like real experiences than contrived tales. It emphasizes the importance of authenticity in storytelling, where the narrative resonates so deeply with the audience that they cannot distinguish it from their own personal stories. This is achieved by creating well-developed characters, believable settings, and a plot that feels organic and relatable.

"We make movies for people who aren't here yet."

The quote by John Knoll suggests that movie creators aim to appeal not only to current audiences but also to future generations who have yet to be born. This forward-looking approach highlights the timeless nature of storytelling in cinema, with films intended to resonate with people across different eras and cultures. In essence, it reflects the desire for artistic creation to transcend the present and continue impacting humanity in years to come.

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something."

This quote suggests that creativity isn't about producing something entirely novel or original, but rather about making connections between existing ideas, knowledge, or experiences in new and innovative ways. The implication is that true creativity stems from the ability to see relationships between disparate elements, rather than merely generating completely unique ideas from scratch. In essence, creative people are simply seeing and combining things in ways others may not have considered before.

"The best technology is the one you don't notice at all."

This quote emphasizes that the most effective technology, or design in general, is the one that seamlessly blends into our environment, becoming an unobtrusive part of our daily lives. It should serve its purpose efficiently, without drawing attention to itself, thus fostering a natural and effortless user experience. Perfect technology, according to John Knoll, is not something that requires explanation or special attention; it simply works flawlessly in the background, enhancing our lives without causing distractions or complications.

The way that Lucasfilm used ILM was George never restricted his thinking to things that he knew could be executed with the tools at the time. He would write what he thought would be cool and what he wanted from a storytelling standpoint with the assumption that, 'Well, they'll figure it out!'

- John Knoll

Thought, Storytelling, Used, Executed

There's a shot that I designed to try and illustrate the scale of the Death Star that's sort of framed in close on the equatorial trench as Krennic's ship is leaving. The camera's pulling back, and you start with it framed so you can kind of see those docking bays that are in that trench.

- John Knoll

Death, Ship, Scale, Trench

'Phantom Menace' was a huge project. It was the biggest visual effects production ever done at that point, and it was a little scary how big it was and how many unknown technologies had to be developed to do that work.

- John Knoll

Work, Big, Production, Menace

It's part of the culture at ILM and at Lucasfilm that the work is better when you collaborate, you know. There's this culture of open exchange, a wonderful ego-free sharing of ideas and talent.

- John Knoll

Work, Wonderful, Part, Collaborate

I think it's an important part of the visual effects supervisor's job to get really deeply embedded in production and keep us all focused on trying to generate the best result. I'm not proprietary about, 'I would rather do this effect than let physical effects do it.' No, let's do the smartest thing for the movie.

- John Knoll

Movie, Production, I Think, Generate

Almost everything I've been paid to do was something that was largely self-taught.

- John Knoll

Been, Almost Everything, Self-Taught

I've gone through a whole series of careers where something started as a hobby of some kind. Almost everything I've been paid to do was something that was largely self-taught.

- John Knoll

Through, Some, Been, Self-Taught

Imagine a 'Mission: Impossible'-style spy or infiltration mission into the core, the very heart of the Empire's military-industrial complex, the most secure facility in the Empire. You have a small band of experts with complementary skills who, together, are able to do these amazing things.

- John Knoll

Small, Secure, Very, Amazing Things

Ideally, you will never know that you're seeing a computer-generated car.

- John Knoll

Never, Seeing, Will, Computer-Generated

You can hardly turn around and not see something that was done in Photoshop.

- John Knoll

Turn, See, Photoshop, Hardly

If you were a new guy at ILM, they put you on the night crew - my shift was from 7 P.M. to about 5 A.M. In my free time, I was working on an idea with my older brother, a software engineer getting his doctorate at the University of Michigan. Ultimately, it developed into Photoshop.

- John Knoll

Software, Older Brother, Photoshop

I've been lucky enough in my career to have opportunities to revisit things that meant a lot to me in childhood.

- John Knoll

Lucky, Been, Meant, Revisit

Something we often struggle with on pictures is the right way to shoot live-action elements that are for an environment that's very complicated from a lighting standpoint. An example is a starship flying through an environment that's constantly changing.

- John Knoll

Through, Often, Very, Right Way

When I first started in the industry, there were - this is prior to the era of computer graphics and all these digital tools - there were some pretty rigid, technologically imposed limitations about how you shoot things, because if you didn't shoot 'em the right way, you couldn't make the shot work.

- John Knoll

Some, About, Imposed, Right Way

In high school and college, I'd set a bunch of goals for myself. I wanted to be the lead effects supervisor on one of these really big, innovative visual effects productions, something on the scale of a 'Star Wars' movie. And I wanted to work on a project that wins the Academy Award for best visual effects.

- John Knoll

College, Big, Movie, Goals

As Lucasfilm is developing IP and we're working on our projects, we should be using those films to advance the ball further down the field and to make things better for the rest of the company and the rest of the industry.

- John Knoll

Rest, Films, Using, IP

Visual-effects shots should flow into the rest of the live action, and you shouldn't be able to see a difference.

- John Knoll

Rest, See, Live Action, Flow

When you are shooting traditional motion capture, it's a big footprint on set. There are, like, 16 cameras that are needed and constraints over the lighting.

- John Knoll

Big, Over, Set, Footprint

I started off as a model maker, so the first part of my career was a model maker and then a motion control camera operator, so I shot a lot of miniatures.

- John Knoll

Career, Motion, Part, Operator

When I was a kid, I built miniatures, and that was actually the first thing I did professionally in the film industry. It was a demonstrable skill that I had, so I worked as a model maker.

- John Knoll

Kid, Built, Maker, Film Industry

I loved movies. In particular, I loved movies depicting places and events that obviously you couldn't have gone out and shot. It was obvious you were looking at something that had been manufactured in some way. I was fascinated by that.

- John Knoll

Some, Been, Particular, Depicting

It's definitely an issue if the actor has passed away without stating any intention or desire about how his or her likeness should be dealt with. Then it falls to their estate. That's a problem that will start solving itself. Now the technology exists, and actors are aware of this and can make their wishes known.

- John Knoll

Away, Solving, About, Likeness

I just have this very simple idea about the rebel spies in the opening crawl of A 'New Hope' who steal the plans for the Death Star.

- John Knoll

Rebel, New, Very, Spies

I have three daughters who grew up while I was working on the special editions and the prequels. They got to be big 'Star Wars' fans. And, you know, I would see them identifying with a lot of the male characters, and I just thought, 'Star Wars' could use more good strong female leads.'

- John Knoll

Strong, Big, Identifying, Big Star

In animation, you can often defer decisions or make changes later.

- John Knoll

Changes, Later, Defer, Animation

Reacting is so important to the craft of acting.

- John Knoll

Acting, Important, Craft, Reacting

'Baby's Day Out' is maybe not a great movie, but... No, I've enjoyed and learned things from every project I've worked on. That was an important step in my career at ILM.

- John Knoll

Career, Movie, Maybe, Great Movie

Every film tries to advance the state of the art, at least a little bit. Brand new techniques? A lot of them are just evolutionary: we're just building on something that's like something we've done before and just trying to do it a little bit better or make it a little bit more realistic.

- John Knoll

Before, Tries, Least, Brand

'Pacific Rim,' for me, was a chance to touch on those old Toho monster movies. 'Godzilla' and 'Rodan'... and then 'Ultraman' and 'Robotech' and all those kinds of things.

- John Knoll

Chance, Old, Touch, Pacific

I came in during the era of models, motion control, and optical printers. ILM had just started its own computer graphics division, after the Lucasfilm computer division had been sold off and became Pixar.

- John Knoll

Own, Been, Became, Optical

There's things that you just couldn't do with an optical printer. Now, with digital compositing, most of the energy that goes into a shot goes into the aesthetic issues of, 'Is it a good shot or not?'

- John Knoll

Digital, Aesthetic, Goes, Optical

Any tool can be used for good or bad. It's really the ethics of the artist using it.

- John Knoll

Artist, Bad, Using, Tool

There was a 3-foot-long model that was built for 'New Hope,' and then there was an 8-foot model that was built for 'Empire Strikes Back.' The 8-foot model and the 3-foot model are kind of different. A lot of the details are different between the two of them.

- John Knoll

New, Kind, Built, Empire

There's no reason to think Disney is going to stop wanting to make 'Star Wars' movies if there's quality and there's interest. It has unlimited potential. It has a huge number of characters, worlds... It's a massive playground.

- John Knoll

Reason, Wanting, Worlds, Disney

If you need to do a movie where you have an army of 10,000 soldiers, that's a very difficult thing to shoot for real. It's very expensive, but as computer graphics techniques make that cheaper, it'll be more possible to make pictures on an epic scale, which we haven't really seen since the '50s and '60s.

- John Knoll

Movie, Cheaper, Very, Shoot

There are things that I am nostalgic about from the 'good old days.' I loved motion control cameras, actually. I love the way they sound. I used to do a lot of miniature work, and it's still warranted, but it's done less often, largely for budgetary, schedule, and flexibility reasons.

- John Knoll

Love, Sound, Reasons, Miniature

You have to do what the story demands, but inside of those constraints, I try to inject as much realistic physics as I'm allowed to.

- John Knoll

Inside, Constraints, Allowed, Demands

Life's too short to be spending all your waking hours doing something you're not excited about. And when people are that excited, you can see it in the work.

- John Knoll

Doing, Excited, Hours, Waking

We were in an atmosphere in the household that you could accomplish anything you set your mind to. If you were willing to put in the hard work, nothing was beyond your grasp.

- John Knoll

Mind, Atmosphere, Set, Household

Part of the process is always, 'Is there a better way?' We try to think through if there's something we can do better creatively or technically, or just is more efficient.

- John Knoll

Think, Through, Always, Creatively

As soon as you take your hobby and make it into your profession, it sort of kills it as a hobby.

- John Knoll

Profession, Your, Take, Hobby

It's harder to get your second picture than it is to get your first one.

- John Knoll

Get, Than, First One, Harder

Having been a cameraman, I think about, 'Well, if this was real, how would this be shot?' I try to inject as much realism as much as possible.

- John Knoll

Think, Been, I Think, Cameraman

A lot of filmmakers understand that the work is done digitally, and it's technically possible to change it late in the game.

- John Knoll

Game, Late, Lot, Filmmakers

I read a magazine called 'Cinefantastique' that had just come out with a making of 'Star Wars' issue. They had some very long and detailed interviews with a whole bunch of people at ILM. I think I memorized that whole magazine.

- John Knoll

Some, I Think, Very, Magazine

A spacecraft cockpit interior is a set where there are a lot of little techy bits, control panels and graphics displays, and other things that are kind of a job to manufacture well.

- John Knoll

Kind, Other, Set, Graphics

When I was a kid, one of my hobbies was as model-maker.

- John Knoll

Kid, Hobbies

ILM was the first company that I had worked at that had a computer-graphics division.

- John Knoll

Company, Had, Worked, Division

I certainly have opinions about things, but we're a service organization. Our job is to try and realize the director's vision.

- John Knoll

Director, About, Certainly, Organization

Eighty percent of my job is to ask the question, 'If this were real, what would it look like?'

- John Knoll

Question, Real, Like, Eighty

On every show, there's some amount of work that is brought to some state of completion - or even finished - and then cut out of the movie.

- John Knoll

Completion, Some, Amount, Finished

A lot of us got into the industry because of 'Star Wars,' and we all have this love of the original source material.

- John Knoll

Love, Star, Original, Star Wars

I don't have any particular loyalties to one technique or another. I'm just trying to use the best for the job.

- John Knoll

Another, Use, Technique, Loyalties

Often if a picture is in trouble one way or another, there are ways to salvage it, through reshoots or whatever.

- John Knoll

Through, Another, Often, One Way

I've been on lots of movies where we've done a lot of planning of sets - how much you build, and is this big enough, and will this get us what we need? - just with foam-core models.

- John Knoll

Movies, Big, Been, Models

I've always lived by the principle of find what you really enjoy doing and make it your career.

- John Knoll

Career, Doing, Always, Principle

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