When building molecular animations, conveying clarity through camera movement can be challenging. Sudden jumps, disorienting spins, or stiff transitions between views are issues commonly faced by scientists preparing visual presentations or educational content. Thankfully, SAMSON’s Move camera animation provides a valuable way to solve this.
With the Move camera animation, you can guide your audience smoothly through a molecular scene by setting camera keyframes—specific positions and orientations that your virtual camera will transition between over time.
Who Needs This?
Whether you’re preparing an academic presentation, training material, or a cinematic overview of a molecular process, smoothly transitioning between viewpoints can help your audience understand structural relationships and dynamics more intuitively. This becomes especially important when highlighting areas of interest such as binding sites, molecular interactions, or active conformations.
Working with Keyframes
To begin using the Move camera animation:
- First, orient the camera to your desired viewpoint using SAMSON’s normal camera controls (rotate, zoom, pan).
- Go to the timeline frame where this view should occur.
- In the Animation panel, double-click on the Move camera animation to add it.
- Right-click on the animation track to select “Add keyframe”—this will capture the current camera view.
You can repeat this process to define a sequence of views. SAMSON will automatically interpolate between them, creating a smooth camera movement across frames.
Adjusting Camera Behavior
If you’re not seeing the result you expect, here are some controls you might want to explore:
- Modify Easing Curve: This changes how motion accelerates and decelerates between frames, accessible within animation properties.
- Keep camera upwards: Helps maintain horizontal orientation, particularly useful when the grid is active.
- Target point: By default, the movement is based on the center of the current camera’s target. This can be adjusted when inspecting the animation object.
Adding clarity to camera movement dramatically improves the flow of your animation and helps your audience stay anchored visually.
Removing or Adjusting Keyframes
To remove a keyframe, just right-click on it within the Animator’s Track view and select “Remove keyframe.” You can also slide keyframes along the timeline to adjust timing and pacing without altering the views themselves.
Examples for Inspiration
To see what’s possible, check out these ready-made animations in SAMSON Connect using the Move camera animation:
Camera animations are not just visual flair—they help tell your molecular story more clearly. By practicing with these tools, you can guide your viewers through an experience that’s both educational and visually coherent.
Learn more in the full documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Download SAMSON at samson-connect.net.