When preparing molecular animations, one of the most common frustrations is discovering that your camera angle — the precise view you’ve carefully adjusted — has unexpectedly shifted later in the animation. This often happens because while you’re editing molecular motions, adding effects, or jumping between frames, SAMSON updates the view according to your last interaction. Suddenly, your animation no longer communicates the structure as clearly as it did before.
There’s a simple yet often underused solution to this: the Hold Camera animation in SAMSON.
Why Holding the Camera Matters
A molecular modeler may spend considerable time setting a camera angle that best displays a binding site, an active conformation, or a particular molecular interaction. Maintaining this perspective over several frames is essential for storytelling, clarity, and visual consistency. When the camera’s orientation inadvertently shifts, the viewer experiences a disorienting jump, reducing the impact of your animation.
This is particularly important when combining different animation effects. If you’re animating ligand binding, for example, but forget to fix the camera between frames with no camera transformation, the angle can change unexpectedly. This ruins the coherence of your visual narrative.
Using the Hold Camera Animation
Here’s how to ensure your viewpoint stays fixed exactly when you need it to:
- In the Animator’s Track view, go to the frame where you want to lock the camera.
- Adjust the view or camera to the desired angle using normal navigation tools.
- Open the Animation panel within the Animator.
- Double-click on the Hold camera animation effect.
- Set the end frame during which the camera angle should remain fixed.
The Hold camera effect creates a static camera zone between two frames. Within this range, the orientation and zoom of the scene remain frozen, regardless of what else changes in the model — coordinates, properties, or visibility.
Practical Tips
- You can always move the start or end frames of the Hold camera effect later on — just drag them to adjust the span.
- Don’t overuse it. Set hold segments where they make storytelling sense, especially during key visual explanations.
- It works well in between other camera movements such as those defined by the Move camera animation, providing full control over transitions.
This kind of detail may sound small, but it’s essential if you want your molecular animations to be clear and easy to follow — especially when shared with collaborators or included in video publications.
For step-by-step instructions, visit the original SAMSON documentation page on Hold camera animations.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at www.samson-connect.net.