Recently, my Photoshop posts have been lacking in layers, which I tend to equate with how much others can learn from them. A file with few layers really only allows for simple usage of the content, and leaves little room to learn from. To try and make up for some of that, here’s a multi-multi-layer Halo 2 Photoshop file where a large portion of the background was cut away to make the image fit the design on (the subsequently redesigned) Xbox.com.

You can view the original screenshot here to see how much area had to be recreated. Luckily, I just happened to have some good source material to pull from. The photo used to rebuild the missing chunk of sky is quite possibly part of the original Halo 2 artwork, as it’s from a PDF I stumbled upon not too long ago. Looking at the original PDF, you’ll notice parts of the sky which have cloud formations matching those in the screenshot. With some clone stamp work, color adjustments, and a new black gradient, the restored image looks good as new. While the original Halo 2 image surely exists somewhere out there, this is a decent Photoshop file tutorial showing how to merge two related images with minimal changes.

Whether you use it for something, learn from it, or just find the files cool to check out, I’d like to hear from you! I know I always enjoy looking through others’ Photoshop files to see how they do things. Could I do anything to improve my posts? Have any requests?

Podner is a brand new utility to quickly encode videos for use on the iPod which takes the hassle — and some of the cost — out of using QuickTime Pro’s exporting function. As simple as drag-and-drop, Podner can take any QuickTime-playable video (including DivX) and convert it to one of the resolutions supported by the iPod. Quality can be easily adjusted with a slider, and the iTunes-ready video title set below it. After converting several videos, I can highly recommend Podner to anyone interested in getting videos onto a new iPod with minimal fuss. It’s receiving great reviews on MacUpdate and is accompanied by a screenshot showing just how easy it is to use. It can be bought for an affordable $9.95, compared to the $30.00 required for a QuickTime Pro license. The Pro version of QuickTime certainly does more, but if iPod video encoding is all you need, Podner fits the bill. It also sports a clever icon and “encoding complete” alert sound, both of which made me chuckle.

In a newly released beta version, the Mac P2P application Acquisition now supports the BitTorrent protocol. What this means is that you can use the gorgeous Acquisition interface for both Gnutella as well as BitTorrent file sharing. The new version also adds downloaded videos to iTunes along with your other videos. As the author puts it, “Acquisition now provides a seamless path from .torrent file to your iTunes Library.” I’ve been waiting for a really Mac-like BitTorrent application for a long time, and I’m not surprised it came from David Watanabe.

A warning from Apple’s Mail.app.

I would like to thank the person responsible for coding this into the program. I’m also curious how rarely encountered situations like this are thought up in the first place, resulting in a great user experience at times when one cringes and expects hundreds of windows to fly open. It’s better to leave the user with a smile and a question instead of a sigh and a screenful of windows.