When 14-year-old John Knoll first saw Star Wars in 1977, he couldn’t work out how they’d done it. That experience, of seeing something completely new and mysterious, inspired him to pursue a career in visual effects, he says, “rather than a reputable field like engineering or architecture.”

These days, it’s Knoll who’s inspiring others to pursue disreputable careers. Since 2013, he has been chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. On Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, he is credited as executive producer as well as visual effects supervisor. And a decade ago, when he was still at work on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, he also came up with the story—just for fun.

“I have him to blame for all this,” says Rogue One director Gareth Edwards. He adds, admiringly, “He and his brother also co-wrote Photoshop.” (Thomas and John Knoll sold Photoshop to Adobe in 1989. Edwards occasionally bugs Knoll to add features.) “He’s a bit of a genius.”

“One of the most brilliant things that [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy did is promote him,” says Jonathan Rinzler, Making of Star Wars writer and Knoll’s co-writer on Creating the Worlds of Star Wars: 365 Days. “They needed someone that passionate and creative at the top, at that level of decision making. [ . . . ] He was a continuation of the early spirit of ILM—and he takes it very seriously.”

Knoll was rejected by ILM when he applied as a graduate fresh from the U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts. They hired him months later, but Knoll would proudly display his ILM rejection letter on his door for years to come.

Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

Since joining the company in 1984, Knoll has been intimately involved in such innovations as the pseudopod, the liquescent tentacle in James Cameron’s The Abyss, and the slimy, all-CG cephalopod-visage of Bill Nighy in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, for which Knoll received an Academy Award in 2007. He also conjured the satisfying elastic warp effect of the Enterprise for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

One of the more life-altering credits on Knoll’s ILM resume is, somehow, 1994’s Baby’s Day Out.

Knoll chuckles at the mention of it. “Baby’s Day Out is maybe not a great movie but . . . ” he trails off. “No, I’ve enjoyed and learned things from every project I’ve worked on. That was an important step in my career at ILM.”