One common challenge in molecular modeling is producing high-quality visuals that not only look good but also properly convey the nature of the materials involved. Whether you’re preparing images for publication, a presentation, or simply trying to better understand how molecular surfaces interact, having control over material appearance is key.
If you’re using SAMSON, an integrative platform for molecular design, you can now leverage Cycles—a physically-based path tracing renderer integrated directly into SAMSON—to create realistic material effects like glass transparency, metallic coloring, glowing regions, and more.
Where to control materials
Materials are managed in the Inspector. You can either directly assign properties or choose from a palette of Appearance presets. This allows you to achieve great visuals with minimal manual tweaking.
A variety of material types at your fingertips
Here are the main categories of material presets available:
- Metallic: Carbon Fiber, Gold, Silver, Steel, and more
- Semi-metallic: Brass, Bronze, Rust, Pearl
- Smooth: Ceramic, Plastic, Marble, Satin
- Rough: Concrete, Velvet, Wood
- Emissive: Faint to Intense glows
- Transparent: Glass, Ice, Water, Wax
Each of these can be just a couple of clicks away, making it easy to experiment and compare visual outcomes quickly.
Adjusting material properties
Beyond presets, you can fine-tune specific parameters directly in the Inspector. For instance:
- Modify the roughness of metallic surfaces
- Increase or decrease the brightness of emissive materials
- Change the transparency or color of glass-like materials
These options are especially useful if you’re trying to simulate fluorescence, mimic experimental materials, or recreate real-world conditions.
Examples to explore
Here are a few examples rendered in SAMSON using Cycles and various materials:
These molecular images demonstrate how different materials can make parts of a molecule stand out more clearly—whether it’s a glowing ligand, a shiny receptor surface, or a translucent water shell.
Why it’s worth trying
Materials give context. Assigning metallic or glossy surfaces can help distinguish structural features, while emissive and transparent effects can illustrate things like energy emission or fluid envelopes. Easily applying these effects directly in the molecular modeling environment, without exporting to another renderer, saves time and keeps your workflow consistent.
If you’re curious, all of this is part of the Cycles rendering integration in SAMSON. You can get started by pressing F9 or going to Visualization > Trace to begin rendering interactively.
To learn more about material control using Cycles, visit the original documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.