A molecular animation can look right while it is playing, yet still leave you without a recorded trajectory to reuse. This is a frustrating gap when you want to preserve the motion created by operations such as assembling, docking, moving atoms, or simulation. In SAMSON, the Record path animation captures atom positions along a presentation and can add the resulting Path node to the document.
The key is to treat recording as a step in the animation sequence—not as an automatic by-product of seeing atoms move. A short setup check can help you avoid replaying a presentation only to discover that some positions were not recorded.
Put recording after the motion
SAMSON’s Animator executes animations from the top down. Therefore, place Record path after the animations whose changes you want to capture. For example, if your presentation contains a movement animation followed by Record path, the recorder comes later in the execution order and records the resulting positions.
To add it, double-click Record path in the Animation panel. Its keyframe is placed at the current frame. You can move that keyframe if the recording should begin at a different point in the presentation.
Read the track before creating the path
The track’s color gives you a practical way to check recording progress. A green segment indicates that positions have been recorded at that part of the presentation. A red segment indicates that positions have not yet been recorded, or that the recorded positions have become invalid. If the track is not fully green, do not assume that the complete presentation has been captured.
Play the presentation so the Record path animation can record the motion. Then inspect the track. If you change the presentation after recording, check the colors again: red sections are a sign that some positions still need to be recorded or are no longer valid. The goal before creating the path is a fully green Record path animation.
Keep recording on only when you need it
Recording can be enabled or disabled in the animation’s Inspector, or by right-clicking the animation in the Animator and changing Enable recording. Disabling it can help performance when you are still working on the presentation, or after the path has been recorded and you do not expect to change it. When recording is disabled, the animation controllers are darkened.
A useful working rhythm is to leave recording off while refining the presentation, then enable it when you are ready to capture the motion. After playback, verify the track. If you revise the animation later, review the track again before relying on the path.
Add the recorded path to the document
Once the presentation has been played and the Record path track is fully green, create the corresponding Path node. You can do this by clicking Create path in the animation’s Inspector, or by right-clicking Record path in the Animator and choosing Create path.
This separates two useful checks: first, confirm that the motion has been recorded across the intended part of the presentation; then, create the Path node in the document. That simple order makes it easier to spot an incomplete recording before moving on to use the path.
For the full instructions, see the Record path documentation.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.