When you’re designing molecular presentations, timing is everything. Whether you’re teaching, presenting to colleagues, or preparing a video abstract for a publication, manually toggling the visibility of molecular nodes can be time-consuming—and often results in jarring, unnatural transitions.
This is where the Flash animation in SAMSON comes in handy. It enables you to control the appearance and disappearance of nodes at exactly the right moments without relying on transparency tweaks or manual toggling. Instead, visibility is handled with keyframe precision, allowing atoms, molecules, or structures to appear and disappear suddenly—in sync with your narrative.
Solving a Visualization Pain Point
Researchers commonly want to show how a molecular structure forms and then rapidly transitions to a new state, or to provide emphasis by making elements briefly visible. For instance, you might want atoms or functional groups to suddenly appear while explaining a reaction mechanism, and then hide them again to allow focus on other components.
The Flash animation was designed for just this scenario. It creates a visible/invisible toggle via four simple keyframes:
- Between keyframes 1 and 2: nodes are hidden
- At keyframe 2: nodes become visible
- Between keyframes 2 and 3: nodes remain visible
- At keyframe 3: nodes become hidden again
- Between keyframes 3 and 4: nodes remain hidden
This gives you the ability to create punchy, time-controlled visibility transitions ideal for step-by-step demonstrations.
How to Use It
To use the Flash animation, first select the nodes you want to control. Then simply double-click on the Flash animation effect in the Animation panel of the Animator. You can adjust the keyframe locations as needed to synchronize with other events.
Customize the transition by modifying the easing curve for more natural or dramatic entry/exit effects. This is useful when you’re creating polished visual narratives—your animations won’t just be clear, they’ll also look professional.
Bonus Tip
The Flash animation is distinct from transparency-based effects. That means it’s perfect when you need elements to be either fully present or absent—no intermediate states. This can bring clarity when you’re highlighting or isolating molecular features without visual clutter.
Ready to start using Flash animations to clarify your molecular stories? It might just save you a few clicks—and more importantly, it will keep your audience focused on the science.
Learn more about the Flash animation at the official documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/flash/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.