In molecular modeling, attention to detail is everything. Whether you’re preparing a presentation, illustrating a mechanism, or crafting an educational video, highlighting specific structures—while letting others momentarily disappear—can improve clarity and focus. However, manually fading parts of a structure in and out often requires a patchwork of visibility tricks that are prone to inconsistency.
That’s where SAMSON’s Hide animation provides a clean solution for easily managing what stays visible and what vanishes—temporarily.
Why hiding nodes helps tell a better story
Let’s say you want to focus attention on a ligand entering an active site. The surrounding protein residues are important, but maybe just for structural context. You want them visible initially, but absent during the binding sequence. Instead of manually adjusting transparency or juggling multiple frames, you can simply add a Hide animation to those nodes at the appropriate keyframe. This ensures a smooth disappearance without disrupting your main track.
How Hide animation works
The Hide animation in SAMSON makes selected nodes fully invisible—without adjusting their transparency—between specific keyframes. Here’s how it functions:
- Between keyframes 1 and 2, selected nodes are visible.
- At keyframe 2, they disappear completely.
- Between keyframes 2 and 3, they remain hidden.
This effect combines the logic of the Shown and Hidden animations into a single, streamlined action. No opacity settings, no object layering—just direct control over visibility.
How to apply the Hide animation
1. In your SAMSON scene, select the nodes you want to hide.
2. In the Animator interface, go to the Animation panel.
3. Double-click the Hide effect from the list of available animations.
4. Once added, you’ll see the three keyframes appear on the timeline. You can adjust their positions to determine exactly when your selection becomes invisible and for how long.
Tips for better results
– You can move keyframes freely to time the hiding effect to match your voiceover, mechanism step, or transition.
– Combine Hide with Appear to create toggling effects between molecular subsystems.
– Use the Easing curve if you embed the hide effect in a sequence involving position or rotation changes on other objects. Smooth timing transitions will keep the animation coherent.
Example: Protein-ligand docking visualization
In the animation below, a set of residues forming a tunnel are hidden right before the ligand enters. This helps the viewer track the ligand’s path while still providing necessary structural context at the start.
With Hide, you can draw the viewer’s eye where it matters—at the right moment—without overloading them with visual complexity.
To learn more, visit the full documentation page here: SAMSON – Hide Animation
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON from https://www.samson-connect.net.