When presenting molecular models, it’s often crucial to bring attention to specific components at the right time. Whether you’re preparing a video for a conference talk, a class, or your research group, you’ve probably faced the challenge of controlling what’s seen and when.
In molecular visualization, timing can be just as important as structure. Imagine walking your audience through a protein binding process while some crucial residues remain hidden until too late—or show too early, cluttering the screen. The result? A less effective presentation.
This is where the Shown animation effect in SAMSON comes in handy. It’s designed to let you control exactly when elements of your scene become visible during your animation, without relying on transparency tricks—just straightforward visibility toggling between keyframes.
What does the Shown animation do?
The Shown animation allows you to make specific nodes (atoms, molecules, geometrical objects) visible at a particular point in your animated presentation. Unlike transparency-based techniques, this directly affects visibility, making your models more readable and sequences easier to follow.
Why is this useful?
Many researchers struggle with keeping their visual narratives clean and focused. This feature is especially helpful when:
- You need to introduce a ligand only after showing the binding site.
- You want to gradually reveal different chains of a biomolecular complex.
- You’d like to show only the residues involved in a conformational change, exactly when that change happens.
How to use the Shown animation
- First, select the nodes you want to display during the animation.
- Open the Animation panel inside the Animator.
- Double-click the Shown animation effect. This sets the starting keyframe at the current timeline position.
- Adjust the keyframes to define when your nodes appear within the full animation sequence.
Don’t worry about getting the timing perfect on the first try—you can always move the keyframes later to best match your story.
Customization tips
If you want more control over how smoothly objects appear, you can customize the Easing curve, which defines how transitions between keyframes behave. For example, you could make nodes snap into view instantly, or ease in more gradually toward visibility for a smoother effect.
In the illustration above, different model elements become visible midway through the animation. This can help highlight structural transitions, interaction sites, or functional domains just when they matter most.
Final thoughts
The Shown animation provides precise control over visibility, allowing you to focus your audience’s attention exactly where it needs to be—without overwhelming them with the full complexity of your model too soon. It’s a small but powerful step toward crafting clearer molecular stories in your animations.
Curious to try it? You can learn more in the full documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.