A molecular model can move convincingly on screen while leaving you with no reusable record of how its atoms got there. That becomes a practical problem when you want to preserve a trajectory produced by another animation—such as moving atoms, docking, assembling, or simulating—or when you need to turn a presentation’s motion into a path you can use again.
In SAMSON, the Record path animation captures atom positions as the presentation runs. It adds a track that records trajectories along the presentation, making it a useful companion to animations that change atomic positions. The important detail is that recording depends on the animation order: the Animator executes animations from top to bottom, so put Record path after the animations whose motion you want to capture.
A dependable recording workflow
- Set up the motion first. Add and arrange the animation or animations that will change atomic positions—for example, a simulation or atom movement.
- Add Record path. In the Animator’s Animation panel, double-click the Record path effect. Its keyframe is placed at the current frame; move it if needed.
- Check its position in the stack. Place Record path below the motion animations. If it appears above them, the top-to-bottom execution order may mean it records before the intended position changes occur.
- Play the presentation. Let it run so the path can be recorded. Watch the track’s color as a quick progress check.
- Create a Path node. Once recording is complete, use Create path in the animation’s Inspector, or right-click the Record path animation in the Animator and choose Create path.
Read the track before you export
The track is more than a decoration: it helps you distinguish a completed recording from an unfinished or invalid one. A green segment means positions have been recorded for that portion of the presentation. A red segment means they have not yet been recorded, or have become invalid. Before creating the Path node, play through the presentation and confirm that the Record path track is fully green. If it is not, treat the red sections as a cue to review the presentation and recording state rather than assuming the path is complete.
There is also a useful distinction between editing and recording. While you are still working on a presentation, recording can be enabled or disabled in the animation’s Inspector or from the animation’s right-click menu by changing Enable recording. Disabling recording can help performance when you do not need to update the path. The animation controllers are darkened when recording is disabled, providing a visible reminder to check before expecting new positions to be captured. Once the path is complete and you do not expect to change it, disabling recording can avoid unnecessary recording work.
Keep the capture aligned with the motion
Keyframes can be moved, so you can adjust where the recording animation sits in the presentation. But placement in time and placement in the Animator stack solve different problems: moving a keyframe changes when the animation is positioned in the presentation, while the top-to-bottom order determines how it runs relative to other animations. Check both when a recording does not match the motion you intended to capture.
This workflow is especially helpful when a motion is already represented by one or more animations and you want to preserve the resulting atom trajectory as a Path node. It keeps the capture step explicit: order the animations, record by playing the presentation, verify the green track, then create the path.
Read the Record path documentation for the full animation details.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.