Controlling how molecular models look is a key part of communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively — and sometimes beautifully. Whether you’re preparing figures for a paper, a video for a presentation, or just want to explore molecular systems visually, material styling makes a difference. Yet, for many researchers, adjusting visual appearances of molecular objects is either too cumbersome or simply not precise enough.
If you’ve been frustrated by how limited your visualization options are in other software, there’s some good news: SAMSON’s integration of the Cycles Renderer from Blender gives you a fast and interactive way to style your models using appearance presets, including metal, glass, plastic, and even glowing materials 🌟.
Presets for Speed, Flexibility for Precision
Within SAMSON, controlling materials is done through the Inspector. Here, you can pick from a curated list of appearance presets with just a few clicks — no node graphs or complex setups required. Each preset is designed to mimic a real-world material, allowing you to render scientific visuals that not only look better, but also feel more intuitive to interpret.
Material categories include:
- Metallic – Gold, Copper, Steel, etc.
- Transparent – Ice, Water, Glass
- Emissive – Soft glow to intense illumination
- Smooth and Rough – From marble and satin to velvet and concrete
This means that whether you need to highlight a ligand with glowing materials or use transparency to visualize molecular interactions inside a membrane, you can do so in seconds.
Adjust if Needed: Fine-Tuning Materials
If you want to go beyond the presets, you can fine-tune material properties manually. Once a preset is chosen, its parameters appear in the Inspector panel, giving you control over:
- Color
- Roughness
- Reflectivity
- Transparency level
- Glow intensity for emissive objects
This is particularly useful if, for example, you’re using the same material on several objects and want slight variations, or if you’re going for a specific scientific or artistic effect.
Examples in Practice
Here are a few examples of how these presets look when applied to different structures:
Why It Matters
Materials affect perception. Visual realism can help highlight key regions in a molecular complex or draw attention to important structural features. It can also help simplify figures by reducing clutter through smart use of transparency and roughness. And of course, the added quality may boost understanding, engagement, and even citations if you’re producing visuals for publication.
For more information about controlling materials in Cycles, visit the original documentation page: documentation.samson-connect.net.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at www.samson-connect.net.