In molecular modeling, it’s common to study a small region of a complex system—like the active site of an enzyme or a particular interaction between molecules—over time. However, as atoms move in a simulation trajectory, keeping your focus fixed on the region of interest while also maintaining a consistent camera angle can be surprisingly tedious.
The Look at atoms feature in SAMSON offers a simple but useful solution: it allows the camera to continuously follow a group of selected atoms without changing its position. Only the camera’s target point moves, keeping your attention centered on what matters most, while your spatial frame of reference remains fixed. This makes it much easier to monitor subtle changes and maintain visual continuity across frames.
When Does This Help?
This technique is particularly helpful when you’re:
- Tracking a binding event at the active site of a protein
- Observing a chemical reaction where reactants move within a confined area
- Presenting a molecular movie where visual consistency is essential for clarity
Without this tool, many users struggle with drifting perspectives due to moving atoms, which can break the visual flow of an animation or make comparisons across frames more difficult. With Look at atoms, the camera’s viewpoint stays stable, greatly improving interpretability.
How To Set It Up
- Select the atoms you want the camera to track. This group defines the moving target.
- Set your scene: adjust the view and orient the camera the way you want to see it throughout the animation.
- In the Animator’s Track view, select the start frame.
- From the Animation panel, double-click Look at atoms. This creates the animation track.
- Select the end frame, or adjust the timeline as needed.
The camera now keeps its position fixed, while its target smoothly follows the geometric center of the selected atoms between the animation keyframes.
Tips and Considerations
- Need to change how the camera behaves? You can inspect the animation and modify properties like Apply to active camera or Keep camera upwards.
- If you use a grid for orientation, note that this can influence the camera behavior depending on whether the grid is turned on or off.
- You can still modify camera positions manually between frames, but the target will always stay centered on the selected atoms.
Here’s an example of what it looks like:
Conclusion
The Look at atoms animation effect helps maintain a steady perspective while still visually tracking the parts of your molecular system that are moving. This subtle technique can make a big difference when analyzing transport, chemical reactions, or any localized dynamical behavior.
To try it for yourself or learn more, visit the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/look-at-atoms/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.