If you’ve ever tried to explain complex molecular phenomena through animations, you know how quickly things can move—sometimes too quickly for your audience to follow. Whether you’re teaching with molecular visualizations, presenting a research discovery, or crafting an educational video, controlling the story flow is crucial.
One common problem is keeping viewers engaged with each step of an animation. It’s easy to gloss over critical moments without realizing it, simply because the animation keeps running uninterrupted. What if you could turn your molecular presentation into a series of controllable slides, pausing exactly where you want to elaborate?
Introducing the “Stop” Animation Effect in SAMSON
The Stop animation effect in SAMSON lets you do exactly that. With this tool, you can insert precise pauses into your animation timeline, segmenting your presentation into digestible parts. This is especially helpful when presenting intricate biological assemblies, docking processes, or conformational changes in a way that’s easy to follow.
When to Use the Stop Effect
Here are just a few situations where the “Stop” animation can make a big difference:
- You want to highlight key stages in a molecular mechanism, like enzyme binding or induced fit.
- You’re preparing a video lesson or lecture and need to explain each intermediate step.
- You’re presenting to an audience and want to take time for verbal commentary at important moments.
How to Use It
Adding the “Stop” effect is straightforward:
- Open the Animator in SAMSON.
- Go to the Animation panel.
- Double-click on the Stop effect to insert a keyframe at the current frame. This is where your animation will pause.
- You can move this keyframe to a different position on the timeline as needed.
To resume playback after a stop, simply press Space or click the Play button in the Animator’s controls. This simple interaction mimics a “slide advance” button during presentations, giving you full control over the flow.
Pro Tips 📌
- You can combine multiple Stop effects across your animation timeline, breaking it into intuitive segments.
- Try scripting voice-over segments to sync with stops in the presentation for educational videos.
- Use it alongside other effects like Pause if you want timed delays without requiring user input.
Why It Matters
Animations are powerful educational tools, but without control, they can overwhelm or confuse your audience—especially in molecular modeling where details matter. With the Stop animation, you’re free to present at your own pace, zooming in on what’s important without rushing through.
To learn more and see exact instructions, visit the official Stop animation documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.