When working with complex molecular systems, showcasing your model from the right perspective can make a world of difference. Whether you’re preparing a presentation, creating an educational video, or simply analyzing a structure for yourself, smooth and controlled camera motion helps to keep focus on what really matters.
One challenge in this process is achieving intuitive vertical camera movement without disrupting the symmetry or flow of a scene — especially when you’re navigating along a complex axis or highlighting conformational changes. That’s exactly where SAMSON’s Pedestal Camera animation comes in, offering a simple and effective way to produce vertical camera transitions that maintain both target and position in sync.
What Is the Pedestal Camera Animation?
The Pedestal Camera effect in SAMSON’s animation system moves the camera vertically between two keyframes. Unlike general translations that might create awkward shifts or distort perspective, this animation modifies both the camera’s position and its target in parallel, ensuring the view stays consistent.
It’s particularly useful when your system has a vertical component — such as membrane proteins, nanotubes, or DNA helices — and you want to slide the camera up or down along that structure without rotating or drifting.
How It Works
- In the Animator Track View, select the start frame.
- Orient your camera exactly how you want the animation to begin.
- Double-click the Pedestal Camera animation effect from the Animation panel.
- The camera’s current position and target are saved automatically for the start frame.
- For the end frame, both the camera’s position and target are shifted vertically by the same amount.
- You can choose the number of frames to fine-tune the animation speed.
Why Use This Approach?
Trying to manually adjust both the camera position and target point often results in jarring transitions. The camera may end up tilted or slightly off-axis. With the Pedestal Camera, since both the position and target move together vertically, you preserve a consistent view while achieving dynamic movement — great for highlighting features across a vertical plane.
This is especially helpful when collaborating or presenting your models. Colleagues and reviewers get a clear, distraction-free transition, helping them stay focused on molecular features rather than motion artifacts.
Customization Tips
The Pedestal Camera animation can be tweaked further:
- Apply to Active Camera: Toggle this when working with multiple cameras.
- Keep Camera Upwards: A useful option when working with or without grid view to prevent unwanted rotation.
- Easing Curve: Customize the interpolation to smoothen or accelerate transitions depending on your presentation style.
Adjusting camera positions manually is still possible but limited for this animation type, preserving its core goal: synchronized vertical motion between frames.
In short, the Pedestal Camera animation is a valuable addition to your animation toolkit in SAMSON. It adds polish and clarity to vertical transitions, helping molecular modelers guide viewers through vertically extended structures without disorienting the experience.
To learn more, visit the official documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.