When creating molecular animations, effectively guiding your viewer’s attention is a major challenge. Whether you’re preparing an educational video, a presentation for colleagues, or a publication-grade animation, cleanly controlling when molecular systems appear and disappear can make your message clearer. This is where the Flash animation in SAMSON becomes useful.
The Flash animation works by toggling the visibility of nodes—not their transparency—between keyframes. This makes it a great choice when you want molecules or molecular parts to distinctly pop in and out of view, without any lingering visual remnants. The result is a crisp transition that draws the eye to exactly what matters at the right moment. 🎯
Why choose Flash?
Unlike other effects (such as Appear or Disappear), which may rely on transparency or more gradual visual transitions, Flash offers immediacy: parts of your molecular system either are or aren’t visible. This binary nature makes it ideal for workflows where clarity and timing are key—especially in animations involving complex assemblies or when comparing states.
How it works
Once you’ve selected the parts of your molecular model you wish to control, you can apply the Flash animation through the Animation panel of the Animator. Simply double-click the Flash effect.
This creates four keyframes:
- From keyframes 1 to 2: nodes are hidden
- At keyframe 2: nodes become visible
- From keyframes 2 to 3: nodes stay visible
- At keyframe 3: nodes become hidden again
- From keyframes 3 to 4: nodes remain hidden
This layout gives you granular control over when items appear and disappear, allowing you to create suspense, redirect attention, or walk the audience through a process in a clean step-by-step fashion.
Customize your timing
Flash animation, like other SAMSON animation effects, supports easing curves. By modifying the easing curve, you can customize how quickly the transition between hidden and visible states occurs, and at what pace. This is particularly useful if you’re synchronizing the appearance of multiple components or coordinating changes with camera movement or narration.
Tips for using Flash effectively
- Combine with camera changes: Use Flash to introduce new pieces of the model just as your camera pans to a different region.
- Guide attention: Draw viewers to key residues or molecular motifs by revealing them with Flash only when relevant.
- Use in comparisons: Flash is excellent for toggling between conformations, binding states, or mutational variants in side-by-side views.
Whether you’re animating protein-ligand interactions or showcasing nanostructure assemblies, Flash adds a simple but effective layer of visual control. To learn more, check the full documentation page for the Flash animation in SAMSON.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.