When preparing animations for molecular presentations, clarity of motion and point of view are crucial. Whether you’re highlighting structural changes in a protein or showing a drug docking process, a smooth, coherent camera move can make all the difference.
If you’ve ever wanted to move the camera vertically—without rotating or shifting the focus of your scene—then the Pedestal camera animation in SAMSON can help you achieve just that. This blog post introduces a precise solution to a common molecular visualization need: camera elevation without loss of orientation.
❓ Why would a molecular modeler care?
Imagine you’re inspecting a long biomolecular structure, like DNA, or a membrane protein embedded in a bilayer. You want to move the camera straight up to reveal more of what’s above while preserving your current view direction.
Generic orbit or flythrough options might realign the view or rotate the scene. The Pedestal camera, by contrast, maintains direction and target while moving the camera and its focal point together vertically. This ensures visual continuity and helps keep viewers focused on the biology, not the camera work.
📽️ What does Pedestal camera actually do?
The Pedestal camera animation moves both the camera’s position and target point upward (or downward) in parallel. The effect is a vertical translation of the view, as if the camera is mounted on a crane moving up along a track—hence the name “Pedestal” camera motion.
This animation is particularly useful when you need to scan up a macromolecular complex, examine different regions of a cell membrane, or slowly reveal structural components in vertical assemblies, all while maintaining the same visual perspective.
🔧 How to use it
- In SAMSON, go to the Animator workspace and access the Track view.
- Set your start frame and orient your camera view as needed.
- Double-click on the Pedestal camera in the Animation panel. The start camera position and target point are recorded there.
- Set your end frame. SAMSON will automatically shift both the camera and target points vertically by a consistent distance.
You can always adjust the start and end frames, and use the animation controllers to fine-tune the camera motion, although keep in mind that Pedestal camera has some limitations on how the positions can be adjusted (i.e., vertically aligned only).
⚙️ Extra tips
- Grid matters: The vertical direction may depend on whether the grid is switched on. To make sure the camera stays upright during the motion, inspect the animation and check the Keep camera upwards option.
- Interpolation: You can refine the camera motion using the Easing curve settings to control how the motion accelerates and decelerates.
This animation works the same way as the Truck camera—except the Truck is for horizontal movement while Pedestal is for vertical shifts.
To see when and how to use this animation effectively, check out the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/pedestal-camera/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.