When presenting complex molecular systems, clarity is essential. One visually effective yet often underused technique is the vertical viewpoint shift — moving the camera up or down while keeping the orientation consistent. This is where SAMSON’s Pedestal camera animation becomes particularly useful.
Imagine you’re showcasing a large molecular assembly, like a membrane protein traversing a bilayer, or a supramolecular complex stacked along an axis. Horizontal sweeps alone might not reveal key structural arrangements. A vertical flythrough, on the other hand, allows viewers to follow the molecular architecture along its principal axis — all while preserving orientation.
What the Pedestal Camera Does
The Pedestal camera animation moves both the camera’s target point and its position vertically — in parallel — between two keyframes, within the camera’s reference frame. Unlike zoom or rotation effects, this vertical movement subtly guides the viewer’s eye along a consistent path, maintaining spatial orientation while providing a fresh vantage point.
This is particularly helpful when exploring structures aligned along a vertical direction, such as helical assemblies or stacked layers in materials modeling. Combined with the Truck camera (for horizontal motion), the Pedestal camera gives presenters fine control over linear camera movements.
How to Add the Animation in SAMSON
Here’s a step-by-step workflow to add your vertical animation:
- Navigate to the Animator’s Track View.
- Choose your start frame and orient the molecular view as needed.
- Double-click the Pedestal camera effect from the Animation panel.
- SAMSON uses the camera’s current target and position as the starting point and shifts both upward (or downward) for the end frame.
- You can adjust both the start and end frames later using the timeline controls.
Tips for Effective Use
- Grid Awareness: If the grid is switched on, it affects how the camera interprets “up”. Inspect the animation and check or uncheck “Keep camera upwards” depending on whether you want the movement aligned with the grid or not.
- Interpolation: You can alter the Easing curve to control how the motion accelerates or decelerates.
- Camera Targeting: By default, the animation applies to the active camera. If needed, disable “Apply to active camera” during inspection to assign it elsewhere.
Limitations and Special Cases
Note that the Pedestal camera has limited adjustability compared to other animation types in SAMSON. While you can tweak the target and position using the animation controllers, the movement must remain parallel between frames to preserve the vertical trajectory.
If you’re looking to guide your audience’s eyes along important vertical axes in your molecular model without complex rotations, the Pedestal camera is a quick and powerful tool to do just that.
For more details on how to use and adjust the Pedestal camera animation, visit the official documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON here.