Creating presentations or videos to showcase molecular simulations and structures often comes with a frustrating problem: how to show the right parts, guide the viewpoint fluently, and highlight molecular features clearly. Static images leave too much to interpretation, and manual video edits are labor-intensive. This is where molecular animations in SAMSON can become a useful part of your workflow.
SAMSON supports a wide range of animations—designed specifically for molecular modeling—to help researchers visually communicate their simulations, models, and mechanisms. Let’s explore how these animations can help you tell better molecular stories to collaborators, students, or in presentations.
Why use molecular animations?
Animations are more than aesthetics. They represent a better way to convey ideas and data:
- Highlight interactions between molecules (e.g., docking, assembling)
- Reveal or hide parts of a structure dynamically
- Show sequential steps in a process or reaction
- Navigate through a complex molecular scene using custom camera paths
Animations in SAMSON are applied to objects like cameras, atoms, structural models, visual elements, meshes, and labels. This means you can choreograph not only molecular transformations but also the way the viewer experiences them.
Animation categories to know about
SAMSON groups animations into categories, each targeting a different aspect of your scene:
- Motion animations: Move, assemble, dock, or disassemble components dynamically.
- Camera animations: Create precise fly-throughs, rotations, and focus shifts using orbit, dolly, or truck motions.
- Entrance & exit effects: Make elements appear, disappear, or fade gently.
- Highlighting effects: Emphasize using pulses or flashes—ideal for pointing out areas of interest.
- Background & pause effects: Change the mood or storytelling pace by altering backgrounds or introducing pauses.
Each animation is customizable and can be layered to build complex sequences. Examples include:
Dock: smoothly brings a ligand into a binding pocket.Orbit camera: circles around a structure to give context from different angles.Pulse: draws attention to a residue by making it appear to glow or pulse briefly.Reveal atoms: unveils portions of a structure over time.
Controlling your presentation with the Animator Panel
Everything is accessible via the Animator panel, which replaces a previously used menu. The panel allows quick access to add, edit, and rearrange animations. You can also play sequences in the Animator’s timeline controls—perfect for rehearsing a talk or exporting a recording.
Try it yourself
If you’re curious how these animations actually look, SAMSON’s team has prepared a short video tutorial walking through how to create animations in practice. Watch the tutorial here.
Whether you’re preparing a lecture, a research summary, or a demo for collaborators, animations help voice your molecular narrative clearly and professionally.
Learn more about the available animations and how to apply them in the SAMSON animation documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download the platform at https://www.samson-connect.net.