Creating molecular animations often comes with a simple but overlooked challenge: making a structure appear clearly and at the right time without visual noise. If you've ever tried to animate molecular models and show a molecule transitioning into the scene, you might have struggled to combine visibility changes with correct timing. Transparency tricks rarely deliver the clean result molecular modelers want — and that’s where SAMSON’s Show animation comes in.
The Show animation provides a straightforward way to control the visibility of molecular nodes in a presentation. Unlike transparency, which keeps objects technically visible but faded, Show uses actual visibility toggles. This helps emphasize what matters in your presentation without distracting visual artifacts.
When visibility says more than a fade
Let’s say you want to present the docking of a ligand into a receptor. Initially, you want only the protein visible. At a precise moment, the ligand should appear — not fade in, but clearly appear, remaining visible while the rest of the animation continues. The Show animation does exactly that.
It works with 3 keyframes:
- Keyframes 1 to 2: the chosen nodes remain hidden.
- At keyframe 2: the nodes appear instantly.
- From keyframe 2 to 3: the nodes remain visible.
This simple approach avoids using multiple animations like Hidden and Shown consecutively and reduces room for error when controlling node states.
How to add it
In the Animator panel of SAMSON, it only takes a double-click to insert this effect:
- Select the molecular nodes you want to appear.
- In the Animation panel, double-click on Show.
- Move the keyframes as needed to adjust timing during your animation.
Because visibility is binary here (either shown or hidden), this method lets viewers focus on key molecular processes without unnecessary transitions.
Why not just fade in?
Transparency can be useful in some cases, but molecular modelers often need to control what is seen and when with precision. Fading in through transparency still leaves the object in view — just semi-obscured. That can clutter your animation, particularly when showing dense molecular systems.
Using Show avoids all ambiguity. The object appears. That’s it. Clarity through simplicity.
More control with keyframes
You can always move keyframes after inserting the animation. This allows you to synchronize the appearance of a molecule with a camera movement, a label, or even an interaction event in your story. For example, you may reveal a cofactor right after a zoom onto a binding pocket. The Show animation gives you the flexibility to build that moment precisely.
Need to refine how parameters evolve between frames? You can fine-tune this with easing curves, bringing a subtle sense of timing and rhythm to your scene transitions. Learn more about easing options in the presentation documentation.
To learn more and explore related effects like Appear or Disappear, head over to the official documentation: Show Animation in SAMSON Documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.