When analyzing molecular simulations, one of the recurring challenges is maintaining visual focus on a specific group of atoms during animation. Whether you’re tracking how a ligand moves inside a binding pocket or examining the structural flexibility of a protein loop, it’s often important to watch a particular part of your model without constantly readjusting the camera. This is where the Look at atoms animation in SAMSON can help.
The Look at atoms animation enables the camera to follow the geometric center of selected atoms while keeping its own position fixed. This means the camera target moves as the atoms move, but your viewpoint remains stable—ideal for creating clean visualizations of dynamic molecular events.
When Is This Useful?
Imagine animating a simulation of a large biomolecular complex where only a small segment of interest is undergoing significant movements. Without locking the camera target, you’d constantly lose sight of the region you’re observing or have to readjust the camera manually across frames. This disrupts the narrative flow of your analysis, and worse, it can cause misunderstanding when sharing animations with collaborators.
By choosing Look at atoms, your animation stays centered on the atoms you selected at the animation’s creation, no matter how the rest of the structure moves.
Getting Started
- Select the atoms you want to focus on. For instance, choose all atoms in a side chain involved in a hydrogen bond network.
- Adjust your camera view the way you want it to appear at the start of the animation.
- In the Animator’s Track view, pick your start frame.
- Double-click the Look at atoms effect in the Animation panel.
- Set your end frame and run the animation. The camera position remains the same, but it keeps looking at the center of your chosen atoms as they move.
Need to Adjust?
You can later modify the start and end frames of the animation or adjust the behavior by inspecting the animation properties. If you want to link the behavior with SAMSON’s grid setting or ensure the camera remains level, the Keep camera upwards option can help.
Example in Action
This GIF demonstrates how the camera follows a selected group of atoms while the camera stays in the same position:
Fine-Tuning
If you’re interested in adjusting the camera position with even more control, you can use animation controllers or refer to specific documentation pages on adjusting camera positions.
One pro tip: because your view remains stable while only the focus changes, the Look at atoms animation is also suitable for generating frames of publication-quality movies where clarity and consistency are key.
To learn more about this feature and explore other related camera animations, check the full documentation at this page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.