Molecular modelers often face the challenge of visual clutter when presenting large or intricate systems. Whether you’re creating visualizations for publications, tutorials, or presentations, overlapping atoms or structures can obscure the message you’re trying to convey. A critical—and often overlooked—solution to this is using targeted disassembly animations to separate groups of molecules or structures for clearer viewing.
In SAMSON, the integrative molecular design platform, you can use the Disassemble animation to elegantly spread apart selected components of a molecular system, making them easier to inspect or present. This simple yet powerful tool helps reduce visual noise, allowing viewers to focus on relevant parts of your structure without manually repositioning every element.
When to Use Disassemble Animations
Disassemble animations are particularly helpful in scenarios like:
- Showing individual subunits of a protein complex during a video tutorial
- Revealing ligand binding modes by moving surrounding residues apart
- Highlighting nanostructured assemblies in nanomaterials modeling
Unlike simple translations, the Disassemble animation computes new positions automatically, distributing selected nodes or meshes away from their original positions while maintaining clarity and coherence. This makes it extremely easy to produce clean visual explanations without extensive manual setup.
How It Works
Here’s a short step-by-step on using the Disassemble animation in SAMSON:
- Select the group of structural nodes or meshes you want to disassemble. If you skip this step, SAMSON will automatically make a guess.
- Open the Animator by pressing
Ctrl+7orCmd+7for Mac users. - In the Animation panel, find and double-click “Disassemble” to insert the effect.
- The selected components will move apart between two automatically created keyframes. You can adjust the keyframes as needed.
- To fine-tune the size of the disassembly effect, use the Inspector.
By default, the amplitude of displacement is chosen automatically to spread the components evenly. Want to control how the movement starts and stops? Tweak the easing curves for smoother or more dramatic effects.
Practical Tip: Manage Complexity Intuitively
The Disassemble animation is great for separating different functional domains in large macromolecular complexes. If you’re preparing instructional material or a scientific animation, separating the domains visually helps audiences understand each component’s role without getting lost in a dense 3D cloud of atoms.
Animations remain adjustable after they’ve been created. You can continually reposition keyframes or change parameters to slide effortlessly between alternative disassembly styles—without deleting or recreating animations.
Example in Action
Below is an example of the Disassemble animation visualized in SAMSON:
This kind of visualization makes it clear where components were originally placed and how they relate spatially after disassembly. It’s particularly effective for presentations or teaching where spatial relationships are crucial.
To learn more about configuring the Disassemble animation and accessing similar effects like Assemble, check out the original documentation here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/disassemble/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.