When preparing a molecular animation, clarity is often just as important as accuracy. Whether you’re presenting a targeted conformation change or emphasizing a binding pocket, excess molecular clutter can become a visual distraction. Molecular modelers often face the issue of wanting to temporarily remove parts of a complex structure to help the audience focus. This is where the Hide animation in SAMSON becomes particularly useful.
The Hide animation allows you to make selected nodes (e.g., atoms, residues, molecular fragments) disappear at a specific keyframe and remain hidden until the end of the effect. This behavior is different from simply lowering transparency—it involves controlling the visibility of the nodes, not how see-through they are. If you’ve previously found yourself stacking Shown and Hidden effects to control visibility, you’ll appreciate how Hide streamlines this process.
How does it work?
After selecting the parts of the molecule you’d like to make disappear during your animation:
- Open the Animation panel in the Animator.
- Double-click on the Hide animation effect.
You will now get an animation with three keyframes by default:
- Between keyframes 1 and 2: the selected nodes remain visible.
- Keyframe 2: the nodes disappear.
- Between keyframes 2 and 3: the nodes remain hidden.
This setup enables a very intuitive way to temporarily hide molecular components, perhaps to reveal an active site or follow a ligand’s path without visual interference from neighboring chains or solvent molecules.
Controlling animation smoothness with easing curves
If you’d like subtle control over how transitions feel, you can modify the Easing curve. Although hiding is an instant visibility change rather than a continuous transformation, easing still influences how smooth the interplay is with surrounding actions in the animation timeline. For example, if you’re combining Hide with Flash or Pulse, easing helps create a polished transition flow between effects.
When to use the Hide animation
Common use cases include:
- Visualizing complex assemblies step by step.
- Guiding viewers’ eyes to specific regions of interest.
- Comparing structural domains by hiding one to observe another.
- Cleaning up redundant or less relevant parts of an animation for presentations.
In the example above, parts of a molecule are faded out of view as the animation progresses, allowing a clearer view of the underlying structure. This can greatly enhance the clarity of your scientific presentations or educational videos.
Please note that older movies and tutorials may refer to an outdated Animation menu no longer present in SAMSON. All animations are now accessed via the Animation panel in the Animator, following the latest interface updates.
To learn more, visit the official documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/hide/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.