One of the common challenges molecular modelers face is effectively communicating molecular transformations over time. Whether you’re preparing educational content, designing nanosystems, or capturing animations for scientific presentations, showing how atoms or molecules change position step-by-step usually requires external video editing tools, timelines, or even scripting—and it often feels more difficult than it needs to be.
If you’ve ever wished for a more intuitive way to animate your molecules directly within your modeling platform, without writing a line of code, the Move atoms animation tool in SAMSON could save you a lot of effort.
What is the Move atoms animation?
The Move atoms animation in SAMSON lets you animate selected atoms simply by selecting them and defining a few keyframes. SAMSON automatically interpolates the motion of these atoms between the frames. This creates smooth transitions ideal for visual storytelling or scientific demonstration.
Why it helps
Visualizing atomic motion typically requires either a simulation engine or external animation software. With the Move atoms animation, you can perform time-based transformations and visual explanations without ever leaving your workspace. Here are a few pain points it can solve:
- Want to reposition atoms for a video or presentation without running dynamics? ✔️
- Need to show a molecule folding, a nanotube rotating, or a custom transformation? ✔️
- No scripting knowledge? ✔️
How to use it effectively
Here’s how you create an atomic motion animation in a few steps:
- Select atoms you want to move.
- Double-click on “Move atoms” in the Animation panel to add a starting keyframe.
- Go to a later frame in the animation track, reposition your atoms, and SAMSON interpolates the transformation.
You can control the interpolation using easing curves, adjust smoothing, or rely on built-in controllers that work similarly to SAMSON’s editing tools. Whether you use the animation’s controllers or switch to external tools like the Twist editor, it’s easy to mix and match within the same sequence.
Flexibility with Editors
If you prefer using other editors—like the Twister or Move editors—you can hide the Move atoms controllers by unchecking them in the Document view. This lets you make transformations using editors you’re most comfortable with and incorporate those into your animation timeline.
Fine-tuning and cleanup
Need to tweak timing or reverse course? Simply drag keyframes along the timeline or right-click them to remove. You can also adjust the easing curve to smoothen or sharpen transitions, giving you more control over the feel of your animation. Here’s what the Inspector looks like when adjusting animation parameters:
Sharing your animations
Some user-generated examples available on SAMSON Connect demonstrate creative uses of this feature, such as in multi-walled nanotube animations. Your creations can be exported or shared with collaborators around the world—from students to research colleagues—as visual aids or teaching tools.
To learn more, visit the official documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/move-atoms/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net