Molecular modelers often need to communicate complex information through presentations. Whether you’re presenting at a conference, teaching a class, or preparing materials for collaborators, clarity and visual impact matter. But switching between different molecular scenes can be visually jarring. A sharp jump from one slide to another may distract from your message.
This is where the Set background animation in SAMSON can help. With it, you can smoothly transition between backgrounds—for example, going from molecular renderings to explanatory slides, or switching from one colored scene to another, all while maintaining continuity in your story.
Why Use Background Transitions?
- Better storytelling: Gradual transitions between visuals can help the audience follow your logic.
- Focus control: Subtle changes in background can shift audience attention without abrupt interruptions.
- Professional finish: Interpolated backgrounds give a polished look, useful with educational slides or publication-quality visuals.
How It Works
The Set background animation in SAMSON lets you define different background settings between two keyframes in a presentation timeline. This can be a plain color, a gradient, or even an image (such as a diagram or slide).
What’s helpful is that the platform automatically interpolates between backgrounds when more than one background animation is specified. The transition happens smoothly across frames, creating a more continuous viewing experience.
You can also control how exactly the transition behaves by selecting an Easing curve in the Inspector panel. The easing curve defines how the transition progresses—whether it’s linear, fast at the beginning, or slows down near the end, etc. This lets you adapt the feeling of the transition to the tone of your presentation.
Getting Started
To add a Set background animation:
- Go to the Animation panel in the Animator.
- Double-click on the Set background effect. This adds the first keyframe at the current frame.
- Move to a later frame and either change the background settings or add another Set background effect. You’ll now have two keyframes to define the transition.
- Adjust the easing curve in the Inspector to refine the interpolation behavior.
Image backgrounds also offer layout options: choose “contain” to fit the entire image within the screen bounds, or “cover” to fill the screen (but this may crop the image on the longer side).
Tips
- Use dark-to-light or light-to-dark color transitions to emphasize a visual narrative.
- If using presentation slides as backgrounds, try matching the slide’s transition with the molecule’s movement in scene for smoother storytelling.
- Experiment with combinations of visual and content transitions to keep your audience engaged.
By incorporating background animations into your workflows, you can enhance your visual storytelling without needing to switch between separate presentation tools. Everything remains integrated in SAMSON’s environment, making it easier to create cohesive scientific narratives.
To learn more, visit the full documentation for the Set background animation here.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.