Do you ever find yourself losing sight of key atoms when playing or exporting molecular animations? When tracking dynamic molecular systems, it’s common to want the camera to remain stationary while directing your attention (and the viewer’s) toward something changing in the scene. Manually adjusting the focus frame-by-frame is time-consuming and error-prone.
The Look at atoms animation effect in SAMSON offers a clean solution to this problem by allowing you to constantly aim the camera at selected atoms—without physically moving the camera itself. This means you can emphasize a specific part of a molecular system while letting the rest of the system evolve during the animation. It’s especially helpful when studying reaction centers, flexible regions, or dynamic interactions that are easy to miss.
How it works
The concept is simple. Once you select the atoms you want to follow, SAMSON creates an animation that keeps the camera targeting the geometric center of those atoms across all frames. Importantly, the camera position remains fixed, offering a steady perspective while the target shifts as the selected atoms move.
Why this matters
This technique avoids sudden shifts or jerks that can make animations hard to interpret or visually disorienting. By using Look at atoms, your camera becomes more like a scientist peering steadily into a microscope, following the action within its field of view but without jumping erratically.
Ideal use cases include:
- Tracking a substrate as it navigates an active site
- Observing protein domain motions around a hinge
- Maintaining attention on a reaction center while showing interacting molecules
Setting it up
Here’s what you need to do inside SAMSON:
- Select the atoms you want the camera to focus on.
- Set up your desired view using the current camera positioning.
- In the Animation panel, double-click on the Look at atoms effect in the Animator’s Track view to insert a camera focus animation.
- Choose your start and end frames. The camera’s point-of-interest will update accordingly during playback while its location in space stays unchanged.
If needed, refine the animation by:
- Inspecting the animation to toggle Apply to active camera.
- Adjusting the Keep camera upwards setting to enforce orientation behavior depending on the grid visibility.
The beauty of this feature lies in its efficiency. You don’t have to manage multiple keyframes or adjust camera coordinates yourself—the animation system takes care of moving the target point as needed.
A quick visual
This animation shows how the camera continues to observe a moving group of atoms. Note how the perspective remains constant while the region of interest naturally stays centered in view. It’s subtle but powerful, especially for data presentation and scientific storytelling.
To learn more about this workflow, check the full documentation page here.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.