Editor: CECIL_B is a new Windows utility for automatic conversion of large sets of BMP files to high-quality, Compact AVI movies. The program is of particular interest to researchers and engineers working with computer simulations. The Design philosophy was to create a program to do one task and to do it well. As a result, it takes only a few minutes to install and to learn the program. Setting up a conversion takes only a few seconds, even with thousand of input graphics files.
On startup, the program automatically detects codecs available on the user's computer. The instruction manual contains a no-nonsense discussion of codecs. Two codecs useful for the conversion process are included with the package. The first task to begin a session is to collect one or more BMP sequences generated by technical software in a working directory. The files should have names like LIVER_TISSUE0045.BMP, where the non-numeric part identifies the sequence and the numerical part defines the order. Setup in CECIL_B consists of the following operations:
1) Make a choice from the list of available codecs.
2) Set the Frame rate (frames per second) for the Movie.
3) Navigate to the working directory and pick one file of The Target sequence using standard Windows dialogs.
In response to the MAKE MOVIE command, the program collects all files that match the pattern, sorts them in numerical order and adds them sequentially to an AVI movie. The program can call up the default AVI viewer to check the results.
