Born in Pasadena, CA. Pioneer in computer and motion graphics animation. Whitney studied in Paris as well as Pomona College in California. He and his brother James entered and won a Belgium film festival in the 1940s with experimental motion studies. During World War II, Whitney worked with missile photography and the earliest of plotting machines in the Lockheed aircraft factory. He realized that the complex calculations the machines made could be used to create complex visual images for the purposes of motion graphics and animation. Later, he would use these machines to create visual effects for independent and commercial projects. With the advent of computers, John Whitney began working with IBM to produce digital abstract effects to correlate with music tracks, with a focus on harmony. He worked through the mid 1960s and into the early 80s working on projects to exploit the power of computer processing. In the late 80s Whitney, along with programmer Jerry Reed, invented a method of producing visual effects simultaneously with music, a process he continued perfecting until his death in 1996. Whitney's works included UNTITLED FILM OF LUNAR ECLIPSE and TWENTY FOUR VARIATIONS (both 1939), three untitled films (1940-42), FILM EXERCISE #1 (1943, w. James Whitney), FILM EXERCISE #2, #3 (w. James Whitney), #4 and #5 (all 1944), CELERY STALKS AT MIDNIGHT, HOT HOUSE, MOZART RONDO, OLD MacDONALD HAD A FARM, CHIMES BLUES, THIRD MAN THEME, DOWN HOME RAG, EGYPTIAN FANTASY, I WANT TO LINGER and DRUMS WEST (all 1952), BLUES PATTERN and PERFORMING PAINTER (both 1955), CATALOG (1961), HOMAGE TO RAMEAU and EXPERIMENTS IN MOTION GRAPHICS (both 1967), PERMUTATIONS (1968),OSAKA 1-2-3 (1970), MATRIX I, MATRIX II and MATRIX III (all 1972), HEX DEMO (1973), ARABESQUE (1975), PERMUTATIONS II (1979), SPIRALS, VICTORY SAUSAGE, PIANNA SPLIT, NICOLAS' BIRTHDAY, PRELUDE #VI- CLAUDE DEBUSSY, DEBUSSY TUER, and FOUR BAGATELLES - SIX SHORT DUETS (all 1988), TO MILTON BABBIT (1990), "IBM Show" (1987-93), SONATINA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS (1988), J'AZZ AGE (1988-94), and three works for video disc (1989-95). Whitney also contributed visual effects for VERTIGO (1958) and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971). He married an abstract painter named Jacqueline Helen Blum, and they had three sons: John Jr., Michael and Mark. They were an exceptional family; all of the Whitneys were interested in filmmaking.  Honorary and Other Awards 1985: "For cinematic pioneeering." Winner presented a Medal of Commendation. 1 Honorary Award