When working on molecular systems, being able to clearly communicate what you are seeing is just as important as understanding what you are looking at. Capturing smooth transitions for presentations, tutorials, or publications can be a challenge, especially when you want to go beyond simply zooming in or out.
This is where the Dolly camera animation in SAMSON becomes useful. Unlike a typical zoom that changes the field of view while keeping a fixed target point, a dolly animation physically moves the camera and its target point between two frames. This creates a natural perspective shift that better preserves spatial relationships in complex molecular scenes. It’s a subtle difference with real impact.
Why Use Dolly Camera Animation?
Stationary zooms can flatten 3D information, especially in molecular environments with depth-dependent effects like fog or depth-of-field. By contrast, the dolly camera allows you to control both the camera position and target point, resulting in richer, more informative animations that enhance depth perception and focus attention on specific regions of a structure.
Getting Started in SAMSON
- Open your project and position the view as you’d like it to appear in the starting frame using standard camera controls in SAMSON.
- Switch to the Animator and select the desired start frame in the track view.
- In the Animation panel, double-click the Dolly camera animation effect.
- Set the end frame and adjust the camera target and position as needed for the end of the animation.
Beyond Basics: Customizing Camera Behavior
By default, the dolly animation applies to the active camera, which is typically the main viewing perspective. This can be changed by inspecting the animation and modifying the Apply to active camera option. This flexibility is important when working with multiple camera tracks for complex storyboards.
You can blend between camera states using an Easing curve. This defines how the position and target interpolate over time – for example, starting slowly and accelerating toward the end – to make animations feel more natural.
An often-overlooked aspect is the “Keep camera upwards” setting. If checked, the animation respects the orientation of the scene grid, which may influence the spatial consistency of the animation when switching between perspectives.
Adjusting Mid-Animation
It is possible to fine-tune the animation even after it’s been set. By selecting the animation and using controllers in the Animator, you can directly manipulate start and end positions of the camera and its target. This is essential for refining focus during a walkthrough of a protein pocket, for instance, or directing attention from one ligand binding site to another.
When to Choose Dolly Over Zoom
Choose Dolly camera when you need dynamic control over both position and focus, especially in 3D scenes where spatial relationships matter. When using fog or depth-of-field render effects, the dolly also provides more control over focus and visibility changes across frames.
More information (including links to camera movement and properties) is available in the documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/dolly-camera/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Try it out at https://www.samson-connect.net.