Controlling the Pace of Molecular Storytelling with Pause Animations

When creating molecular animations, timing is everything. Whether you’re showing a conformational change, a docking process, or a reaction pathway, there are moments when you want your audience to stop and observe. But how do you highlight a critical molecular state without jumping straight to the next frame?

This is where the Pause animation in SAMSON comes in handy. It allows you to freeze the animation at a specific frame for a set duration, giving your audience a moment to absorb the details.

Why a Pause Can Make a Difference

Molecular modelers often craft animations to communicate complex spatial and temporal phenomena. However, when animations play at a constant speed, critical steps might be overlooked. With the Pause effect, you can:

  • Emphasize a specific molecular conformation or interaction, such as a key ligand-protein contact.
  • Give some breathing space for annotations or explanations during a live presentation.
  • Enable screenshots of critical frames without having to pause manually at runtime.

How to Add a Pause to Your Animation

Adding a Pause animation is straightforward:

  1. Open the Animation panel of the Animator in SAMSON.
  2. Double-click the Pause animation effect.
  3. A Pause keyframe will be inserted at the current frame of the animation timeline. You can move it to the desired frame by dragging it.

Tip

You can always move the keyframes later if you want to adjust the timing.

Editing the Pause Duration

To change how long the animation pauses:

  1. Open the Document view and select the pause animation node.
  2. Head to the Inspector, where you can see an input for the number of seconds to pause.
  3. Set your desired duration and preview the result.

This makes it easy to tailor your timing to align with explanations, narration, or transitions between topics.

Pause animation settings in the Inspector

Good Practices

Here are some simple best practices when using pause animations in your molecular presentations:

  • Use sparingly: While it’s tempting to add pauses frequently, overuse can disrupt the flow.
  • Synchronize with audio: If you’re narrating, align the pause duration so listeners have time to follow your explanation before the animation continues.
  • Plan your storyboard: Define where pauses provide value — in transitions, after major conformational steps, or before a reaction takes place.

Ready to take more control over your animations? Learn how to synchronously reveal molecular mechanisms and give your audience time to absorb what matters most.

Learn more in the detailed documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/pause/

SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.

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