When preparing molecular presentations or videos, one of the biggest challenges modelers face is showcasing how structures come together. Whether it’s to illustrate docking, self-assembly, or molecular design, it’s often difficult to animate clear, comprehensible transitions from individual parts to a full complex. Many users spend hours trying to script or manually design these animations, only to end up with rigid, unrealistic motion—or worse, no animation at all.
The Assemble animation effect in SAMSON provides an intuitive, automated way to solve this. It starts with your final structure and intelligently places molecular components away from their current positions. Then, over your chosen animation interval, the parts fly in and smoothly come together. You only need to select the components and insert the animation—SAMSON handles the rest.
Why this matters
Molecular animations are more than just visual polish. They help communicate mechanisms of action, clarify spatial relationships, and engage viewers in a way static structures can’t. But the time investment to make even a simple animation often keeps researchers from using them. The Assemble animation lowers this barrier significantly.
Imagine showing how a protein-ligand complex forms, or how subunits come together in a macromolecular complex. With Assemble, you can turn a final structure into a clean, convincing “assembly” animation in a few clicks.
How it works
Creating an Assemble animation is straightforward:
- Select a group of structural nodes or meshes (you can also let SAMSON infer this automatically).
- Double-click the Assemble effect in the Animation panel inside the Animator workspace.
- Adjust keyframes on the timeline as needed for timing.
SAMSON automatically computes initial positions for the pieces away from their final location, and then interpolates motion to “snap” them into place over time. If needed, you can fine-tune how far objects move (their starting distance or amplitude) in the Inspector, or modify the easing curve for more customized interpolation between keyframes.
Useful cases and examples
This effect is especially clear and useful in multiple common modeling scenarios. Here are two publicly available examples that used the Assemble animation:
Below, you can see an example animation where individual components smoothly assemble into their final structure:
This can be a great first step before layering in more animations—such as highlighting interfaces, rotating the resulting structure, or zooming in.
Tips
- Use Assemble together with Hold Atoms or Move Atoms for more nuanced effects.
- If you want the assembly to loop or reverse, duplicate or reverse keyframes.
- Experiment with easing curve types, like ease-in-out for a smooth start and finish.
To get more details about this animation, visit the full documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/assemble/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net