When preparing animations in molecular modeling, maintaining a visually consistent perspective across frames is essential. Any unintended movement of the camera can lead to a jarring viewer experience or loss of focus on critical molecular features. This is a common pain point for many researchers and content creators who want to communicate molecular dynamics or structural relationships clearly.
In SAMSON, the integrative platform for molecular design, the Hold camera animation provides a simple but effective solution to this problem. It lets you freeze the camera’s position and orientation between any two frames, even when you’re not explicitly animating the camera. This ensures your view remains constant—regardless of edits or other animations happening elsewhere in your presentation timeline.
Why Hold the Camera?
If you’ve ever navigated through your molecular system to add elements or adjust structures, you might have accidentally changed your camera view. Later, when you play back the animation, the perspective may unexpectedly shift. The Hold camera tool is designed to avoid this. It anchors your viewpoint between two keyframes, so viewers stay focused on what matters.
How to Use the Hold Camera Animation
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
- Open the Animator and go to the Track view.
- Select the frame where you’d like to start holding the camera.
- Set the camera/view to the desired orientation using standard navigation methods.
- Double-click the Hold camera option in the Animation panel.
- Set the end frame—this defines the range where the camera view is locked.
You can still shift start and end frames later to fine-tune the duration of this static view. This flexibility makes the Hold camera effect especially useful when combining it with other types of animations, like structure transformations or property changes.
Best Practices
To get the most out of this feature in your workflow:
- Use Hold camera before animating molecular changes to maintain a clear focus on the region of interest.
- Combine static and dynamic frames thoughtfully—use static frames to emphasize key steps or transitions.
- Lock the viewpoint before making changes in your model to avoid accidentally shifting the viewer’s perspective.
In the example above, you can see how the camera holds its position across several frames, making molecular changes easier to follow. This can be particularly helpful for work involving collaborative reviews, teaching, or presentation of simulation results.
To learn more about the Hold camera animation, visit the official documentation page:
https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/hold-camera/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON from https://www.samson-connect.net.