When crafting molecular animations, timing is everything. Whether you’re presenting a mechanism of action, illustrating a conformational change, or giving a live seminar, controlling the pace of your animation helps your audience absorb complex processes one step at a time.
One common challenge faced by molecular modelers: animations that move too quickly or uniformly, leaving little opportunity for explanation or interaction. Manual pausing during presentations can easily become clumsy or imprecise. Fortunately, SAMSON offers a solution: the Stop animation effect.
Why use the Stop animation?
The Stop animation in SAMSON lets you program specific moments within your molecular presentation where the animation should intentionally halt. This behavior transforms your continuous molecular movie into a more structured and digestible experience—like stepping through a scientific slideshow made of atoms and molecules.
For example, let’s say you’re showing a protein binding event. You can animate the binding sequence smoothly, and then use a Stop animation at the exact frame where the ligand docks. This gives your viewers a moment to focus. You can engage the audience, add context, or discuss interactions before proceeding to the next stage. To continue, simply press Space or click the Play button within the Animator’s controls.
How to add a Stop animation in SAMSON
The process is simple:
- Open the Animation panel inside the Animator.
- Navigate your animation timeline to the frame where you want to insert a pause.
- Double-click the Stop animation effect. A keyframe is placed at the current frame.
- Need to adjust? Just drag the keyframe elsewhere—SAMSON lets you move keyframes as needed.
This approach is more than just a utility—it’s a storytelling tool. By turning frames into slides, you’re able to emphasize turning points in a dynamic process without editing videos externally or scrambling to pause presentations live.
Stop vs. Pause: What’s the difference?
Pause animations are also available in SAMSON, but they act differently: a pause delays the animation for a specific duration, resuming automatically. In contrast, a Stop waits indefinitely, giving you complete manual control over when to proceed. For teaching, discussions, or demonstrations, Stop is often the more effective choice.
By weaving Stop animations into your timeline, you create natural breaks for teaching or highlighting molecular moments that matter. Try using them in your next sequence and see how much smoother your presentations can become.
To learn more, visit the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/stop/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.