Animating molecular structures is often a surprisingly repetitive task. If you’re a molecular modeler regularly preparing presentations or educational material, you probably spend far more time than you’d like moving atoms and tweaking their positions across frames. But building clean, smooth molecular movement doesn’t have to be tedious.
Let’s focus on a practical and time-saving tool in SAMSON: adding keyframes to animate atom movement. This functionality is part of the Move atoms animation, which allows atoms to travel smoothly between defined positions. While it may seem basic, this feature can significantly streamline your animation workflow.
Why use keyframes?
Keyframes are a fundamental part of animation—they mark the beginning and end of any transition. In SAMSON, when you define two keyframes with different atomic positions, it automatically interpolates the movement between them. This lets you avoid defining every intermediate step manually. Whether you’re simulating molecular folding or adjusting camera perspectives for kinetic visualizations, keyframes mean efficiency.
Adding a Keyframe Step-by-Step
Here’s how you can begin using the Move atoms animation:
- Select the atoms you want to move.
- Double-click the Move atoms option in the Animation panel of the Animator. This places a starting keyframe.
- Go to a new frame in the animation track and move the atoms to the desired location.
- This automatically adds a second keyframe, creating the interpolation.
This system allows you to visually plan and adjust your animation without scripting or manual repositioning for each frame.
Tips to Work Efficiently with Keyframes
- You can drag keyframes to different times in the animation track to speed up or slow down transitions.
- Right-click a keyframe to remove it if you made a mistake or need a cleaner timeline.
- If you prefer using tools other than the Move atoms control handles, you can hide the animation controllers and switch to alternative tools like the Twister editor.
Beyond Precision: Using Interpolation Curves
In SAMSON’s Inspector, you can customize your animation further with an easing curve, which fine-tunes how your motion is interpolated between keyframes. You can also toggle smoothing on or off to better suit your desired dynamic. This is especially useful when trying to mimic real molecular behavior versus illustrative movement.
Real-world Examples
Looking for how others use this? SAMSON Connect features some nice molecular animations built using this method, including:
These examples show the power of a few well-placed keyframes to create effective scientific visuals.
Want to learn more about how to animate atom movements in your own work? You can read the full documentation on Move atoms animation in SAMSON.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.