When preparing molecular animations, one common challenge researchers and molecular modelers face is achieving a smooth, natural-looking zoom that follows a moving point of interest—without making the viewers feel disoriented. Whether you are visualizing active binding sites, tracking molecular pathways, or emphasizing structural changes, static zooms just don’t always cut it.
This is where the Dolly camera animation in SAMSON can help you. Unlike the more rigid Zoom camera animation which keeps a fixed target point, the Dolly camera animation lets you interpolate both the camera’s position and its target point over time, allowing for more cinematographic, guided motions. This helps your viewer better follow the action, while also enabling you to align the animation with effects like fog or depth-of-field that depend on the focal target.
When to Use the Dolly Camera Animation
If your goal is to begin an animation zooming into a region and then shifting that focus to another area—like following a ligand entering an active site—the Dolly animation is ideal. Because both the position of the camera and its target can change, you avoid the kind of awkward sliding or broken focus that a basic zoom introduces when the target point remains static.
How to Set It Up
1. In the Animator’s Track view, first go to the start frame and orient your view/camera to the desired initial state.
2. Then open the Animation panel and double-click the Dolly camera effect. This adds the dolly animation to the timeline from the current view setup.
3. Next, navigate to the end frame and adjust your view again—move the camera and also shift its focus to the new region of interest.
You can modify either the start or end frame positions later, so don’t worry about having every detail perfect the first time.
Fine-Tuning Your Motion
Once the Dolly animation is inserted, you can:
- Control whether the animation applies to the active camera or another one by inspecting its properties.
- Maintain an upright camera depending on whether the scene grid is active or not using the Keep camera upwards option.
- Change the interpolation between frames by selecting a different easing curve. This is particularly useful for slowing in/out the motion so that zooms and turns feel more natural.
Make Adjustments Easily
You can always refine the camera’s path and target positions once the animation has been added. SAMSON provides intuitive animation controllers that let you tweak positions directly in the viewport. For more details, check out the section on Adjusting camera positions.
By combining movement and point of focus, the Dolly camera effect allows you to tell a clearer visual story in your molecular simulations. No more abrupt jumps or fixed zooms—just seamless, viewer-friendly transitions, especially helpful for teaching, publications, or conference presentations.
To learn more, visit the original documentation page for the Dolly camera animation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net