When you’re working on a molecular movie or educational demo, it’s often useful to make certain molecules or parts of a system disappear for a few moments. Maybe you want to reveal an internal binding site, or highlight a dynamic process without visual clutter. In SAMSON, this can be achieved easily with the Hidden animation effect—but there’s more to it than just invisibility.
Let’s break down how this effect works and when to use it effectively.
Why hiding instead of fading?
At first glance, you might expect that making something temporarily disappear would involve a transparency or fade-out effect. But molecular designers often want to clearly show: this part is not here in this frame. That’s where the Hidden animation comes in.
This animation hides selected nodes between two keyframes—not by adjusting transparency, but by altering their visibility state. The element becomes fully invisible, like it’s not in the scene at all, until you choose to make it reappear.
Example: Focusing on a Binding Pocket
Imagine a large biomolecular complex. You want to showcase how a drug interacts with a binding pocket deep inside a protein structure. Showing the full structure all at once could be visually overwhelming. With the Hidden animation, you can:
- Hide the external domains framing the pocket
- Focus the viewer’s attention on a filigree crystal structure or interaction loop
- Gradually bring parts back on screen for context
How to set it up
- Select the nodes (atoms, residues, or molecules) that you want to hide.
- In the Animation panel of the Animator, double-click on the Hidden effect.
- The current frame becomes the first keyframe—start of the hidden interval.
- You can shift the keyframes on the timeline later to adjust when the nodes disappear and reappear.
Note that in previous versions of SAMSON, the Animation menu included these effects. Now, everything is accessible from the Animator’s Animation panel. Once added, keyframes can be moved freely to time the disappearance as needed. Combine it with other animation types—like Pulse or Flash—to add emphasis before an element vanishes.
Smooth control via easing curves
If the component you’re hiding is part of a more complex animated sequence, you can control how its visibility change is interpolated using easing curves. This gives you subtle control over the pacing and can blend the hiding with motion or transformation effects.
Want to deepen your control?
You might also want to explore related animations like Show or Disappear, which offer related but distinct effects, such as a sudden fade-out instead of an on/off toggle.
To learn more, visit the original documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/hidden/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON here.