When preparing molecular presentations, clarity and subtle focus cues often make the difference between a compelling visual and a confusing one. Among the animation tools available in SAMSON, the Rock animation offers a simple yet effective way to highlight dynamic molecular structures in an engaging manner—without overwhelming your audience.
Rather than performing complex molecular simulations, sometimes you just want to draw the viewer’s gaze to a specific region or component in a structure. Slight movement attracts attention, and this is where the Rock animation in SAMSON becomes useful: it gently oscillates selected particles around their geometric center along a vector aligned with the Z-axis. The result is a subtle “rocking” motion of the molecule that keeps the structure readable while infusing it with life.
When and Why to Use Rock Animation
Molecular modelers often prepare slides or videos to showcase protein binding sites, ligand interactions, or structural transitions. However, in still images or even static 3D views, key molecular features might be overlooked. A gentle animation can emphasize intended regions of interest without overwhelming the viewer with full rotations or camera movement.
This is especially helpful when:
- Introducing structural features of large biological assemblies
- Emphasizing individual domains or binding pockets in a protein
- Helping audiences distinguish between closely packed components
How to Set It Up
Getting started with the Rock animation requires just a few steps:
- Select the group of particles (atoms, residues, or components) you want to animate.
- Open the Animation panel in the Animator workspace.
- Double-click the Rock animation effect.
The movement will be applied between two keyframes. You can adjust these keyframes along the animation timeline to control the speed or timing. Additionally, it’s possible to customize the Easing curve to change how the animation interpolates over time—for instance, starting fast and slowing down, or rocking smoothly back and forth.
Applications in Practice
The Rock animation works particularly well in educational videos or during live demonstrations, where motion enhances understanding. In environments where you cannot use full molecular dynamics simulations due to compute limits or clarity concerns, simple rigged animations like Rock provide a lightweight alternative.
Here’s an example of the Rock animation applied to a protein structure from the Protein Data Bank:
This subtle oscillation calls attention to the molecule without rotating the entire scene. It’s elegant, informative, and easy to implement.
Additional Tips
- Combine Rock with other effects like Hold Atoms to isolate movement to precise parts of your structure.
- Keep animations minimal to avoid distracting from structural details.
- Preview your animation across various viewpoints to ensure the motion is visible but not disorienting.
To explore the detailed instructions and access example projects using Rock animation, you can visit the full documentation here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/rock/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.