When preparing molecular animations, one common challenge is controlling the visibility of structures over time—especially when you need molecules or molecular components to appear exactly at a specific point and remain visible afterwards. This is a frequent need when highlighting a process such as ligand binding, conformational change, or simply introducing parts of an assembly step by step in a presentation.
If you’ve worked with molecular animations in SAMSON, the integrative platform for molecular design, you might be manually combining visibility animations like Hidden and Shown to achieve this effect. However, there’s a dedicated solution you might have missed: the Show animation.
Addressing the Visibility Pain Point
The Show animation is designed for precisely this scenario. Instead of toggling transparency or managing combinations of visibility animations by hand, this animation offers a simpler alternative: it makes selected structures appear at a specific keyframe and ensures they remain visible for the rest of your video.
How It Works
Here’s how it behaves:
- From keyframe 1 to 2, the chosen nodes (atoms, residues, molecules, etc.) are hidden.
- At keyframe 2, they become visible.
- From keyframe 2 to 3 (until the end of your animation), they stay visible.
This structure makes it easy to clearly present a sequence—such as assembling part of a protein complex—without needing to manipulate multiple animations in the Animator.
How to Add It
To add a Show animation:
- Select the nodes (atoms, molecules, surfaces, etc.) you want to appear.
- Double-click the Show animation in the Animation panel of the Animator.
You will then see three keyframes added automatically. You can drag these keyframes to adjust when the nodes appear during your movie. Fine-tune the timing by dragging the frames to match your narrative.
Customize Your Transitions
Need more control over how the animation feels? SAMSON lets you modify the interpolation via the easing curves. This lets you tailor the speed or abruptness with which nodes appear, adding polish to presentations or teaching materials.
Example in Action
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
Use cases include:
- Highlighting when a ligand enters a binding pocket
- Step-by-step construction of a large assembly
- Dynamically building up a molecular story in a lecture or educational video
Importantly, the nodes do not simply fade in—they switch from invisible to visible via visibility toggles, not transparency, preserving clarity and performance.
To explore further and see how “Show” complements other animations like Appear, Hide, or Flash, visit the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/show/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.