Visualizing molecular motion can be essential when preparing presentations or explaining a structural change to collaborators or students. However, animating groups of atoms in a way that is both informative and visually smooth can be time-consuming, especially if each movement must be manually created. If you’ve found yourself needing to simulate a back-and-forth swinging movement—like a molecule being gently rocked—SAMSON’s Rock animation feature offers a streamlined solution.
When and Why to Use a Rock Animation
The Rock animation is ideal for showing motion in molecular assemblies that pivot or swing around a fixed axis. It helps demonstrate conformational flexibility or add a touch of life to static structures in scientific presentations. For instance, you might want to highlight domain motion in a protein or simulate a ligand gently testing conformations while bound to a receptor.
What Is the Rock Animation in SAMSON?
In SAMSON—the molecular design platform—the Rock animation rotates a group of particles back and forth around a vector that passes through the group’s geometric center and is aligned with the Z-axis. It’s essentially a smooth oscillation that appears like the molecule is gently rocking in place, providing a dynamic visual without complex scripting or keyframe editing.
How to Apply the Rock Animation
Here’s how it works in SAMSON:
- Select the group of atoms or particles you want to animate. This can be done using the standard selection tools within SAMSON. If you’re new to selections, check out this guide.
- Double-click on the Rock animation effect in the Animation panel of the Animator. This will automatically create two keyframes for a short rocking cycle.
- Adjust the keyframes to control the duration and timing of the motion. You can simply drag them along the timeline.
The result is a natural-looking rocking animation, like the one demonstrated below:
Fine-Tuning the Animation
Need more control? The Rock animation works with SAMSON’s Easing curves, which let you choose how interpolation happens between keyframes. For instance, “ease-in-out” can make the motion start and end gently, which is particularly useful for looping presentations that need a polished feel.
Real-World Example
Want to see it in action? Check out this sample document on SAMSON Connect: 2BRD – Rock animation. It gives you a quick idea of how this effect can bring molecular systems to life without cluttering the screen.
Conclusion
The Rock animation makes it easy to breathe subtle motion into molecular structures, helping you communicate dynamic behavior effectively. With minimal setup, this feature can save you time and enhance the clarity of your visual storytelling.
To explore more, visit the original documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/rock/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON here: https://www.samson-connect.net.