In molecular modeling, clarity is key—especially when communicating complex structures to a broader audience. Whether you’re preparing a presentation, making educational content, or exploring your designed molecules, visualizing molecular components separately can provide immediate insight into structure-function relationships. This is where the Disassemble animation from SAMSON becomes particularly useful.
The Disassemble animation allows you to start from an assembled molecular structure and then smoothly separate selected components. This can transform a dense, compact molecular view into a clearer, more didactic scene—ideal for teaching, publications, or collaborative design discussions.
What does it do?
The Disassemble animation moves selected nodes (atoms, molecules, meshes) from their original clustered positions to automatically computed positions further apart. The goal isn’t to explode the structure randomly, but to spatially distribute components in a coherent and informative way.
Imagine presenting a protein-ligand complex to a colleague. Instead of starting with a dense ball of atoms, you can linearly disassemble the protein and ligand into different regions of the screen, briefly pausing at each stage to describe functional roles or key interactions.
How do you apply it?
- Use SAMSON’s selection tools to select the components you want to disassemble. You don’t have to be exhaustive—SAMSON will attempt to make an intelligent guess if nothing is selected.
- Open the Animation panel in the Animator, and double-click on the Disassemble effect.
- SAMSON will automatically insert two keyframes. The selected group will transition from its initial position (first keyframe) to a new, disassembled configuration (second keyframe).
- Adjust the keyframes as needed to fit the timing of your presentation.
Customize Your Animation
Two powerful customization options make the disassemble effect flexible:
- Amplitude: Controls how far apart the selected parts move. You can inspect the animation using the Inspector to adjust this parameter.
- Easing Curve: Defines how smoothly or abruptly the motion changes between keyframes. SAMSON supports a variety of interpolation options via easing curves.
Helpful Tip
The Disassemble animation is non-destructive and does not alter your model—it only affects the presentation. This makes it particularly useful for users working on structure-based drug design, protein engineering, nanodevice assembly, or educational content in molecular biology.
Visual Example
Want to Try It?
This animation is a great complement to other motion effects in SAMSON, such as Assemble, Hold Atoms, and Move Atoms. Combined cleverly, these can form dynamic, yet informative demonstration sequences where structural composition and relationships become instantly easier to understand.
Learn more about the Disassemble animation in the official documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.