When presenting molecular systems, clarity is key. Whether you are illustrating a dynamic interaction or simply emphasizing a structural element, controlling what appears at which time can dramatically improve your viewers’ understanding. That’s where the Flash animation effect in SAMSON comes into play.
If you’ve ever tried to animate multiple molecular elements and found yourself frustrated by overlapping visuals or unclear transitions, this effect addresses a common pain: toggling visibility cleanly between keyframes without fiddling with transparency or manually hiding elements.
What the Flash Effect Does
The Flash animation makes selected nodes appear at a specific keyframe and disappear at another. Unlike transparency-based animations, Flash modifies the actual visibility state of nodes. This makes it more predictable when building clean animations—especially when those animations are part of scientific communication.
When to Use It
- To highlight a molecule or structure at a key moment during a presentation.
- To cleanly alternate between different molecular conformations or parts.
- To reduce visual clutter in time-dependent simulations or transitions.
How It Works
After selecting the nodes you want to animate, simply double-click on the Flash animation in the Animation panel. The animation includes four keyframes by default:
- Keyframe 1 to 2: nodes remain hidden
- Keyframe 2: nodes become visible
- Keyframe 2 to 3: nodes stay visible
- Keyframe 3: nodes become hidden again
You can adjust the timing by dragging the keyframes on the timeline, making it compatible with the narrative structure of your animation—whether you want a short flash or a long pause with the element visible.
Visibility Without Transparency
This matters more than it might seem at first glance. Transparency effects often interact poorly with complex rendering environments—especially when layers are stacked or when multiple semi-transparent nodes overlap. By using boolean visibility switches instead, Flash avoids these rendering challenges entirely.
Fine-tuning Transitions
Although Flash switches visibility abruptly, you still have control over how parameters interpolate using the Easing curve. This means you can prepare the camera motion or other effects in parallel with your visibility changes, aligning everything to create a polished sequence.
Try It on Your Next Presentation
Whether you’re showcasing a ligand binding, a channel opening, or just switching between conformations, Flash lets you keep your message clear, clean, and simple—without distractions or visual noise.
To learn more, visit the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/flash/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.