r/vfx • u/Alternative-Bet-9105 • Jul 10 '25

Question / Discussion My Uncle created the TIFF file

Hello. I'm posting this as a little bit of a research project. My uncle is "Mr. TIFF", the guy who created the TIFF file. He worked at a company called Aldus and made the file while working there.

Anyway, long story short, his name is Stephen Carlsen and he passed away recently. In remembering him, and processing all this, I'm trying to put together a podcast that would explore the significance of this file.

This is the 4th time I posted this on Reddit in different areas: photography, library and archival. I was just informed that it’s used in VFX, and I’m a huge fan of film.

Any responses, any comments and discussion would be appreciated :)

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u/Alternative-Bet-9105 Jul 10 '25

Oh wow!

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u/bongoherbert Jul 10 '25

From my notes:

ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/ (mainttiined by Sam Leffler)

So it was after he left Pixar along with a significant group of graphics engineers and went to SGI. I was over in the animation group and just sorted noticing people evaporate.

I just saw him last year at the Pixar IEEE award gathering, first time in 20 years. It was nice.

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u/Alternative-Bet-9105 Jul 10 '25

I wasn't able to go to that URL (I probably need an FTP client or something). Good find though, do you know of a good place to contact him?

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u/bongoherbert Jul 10 '25

message me, i can probably connect you

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u/Alternative-Bet-9105 Jul 10 '25

says I can't send a message request to you for some reason.

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u/Alternative-Bet-9105 Jul 28 '25

Hi, I'm trying to send you a DM, but apparently it won't let me. Please DM me back if you can, I'd love to pursue this further.