When presenting molecular structures to colleagues, students, or for outreach purposes, it’s often helpful to add movement to focus attention or communicate structural symmetry. One simple visual tool that can significantly enhance your presentation is a rotation animation.
Imagine you’ve built a molecular system in SAMSON. It’s complete, but when you present it, it appears still and flat on the screen. By rotating the molecule smoothly around its centroid, you can allow your audience to see it from all sides and appreciate its three-dimensional structure. This can be especially useful when you’re working with symmetric molecules, supramolecular complexes, or large protein assemblies where spatial organization matters.
The Rotate animation in SAMSON provides exactly this capability. It rotates a group of particles about their geometric center, using a rotation axis that aligns with the Z-axis. This is especially helpful when they are already positioned in a canonical orientation, like those often found in visualizations of alpha helices or beta sheets.
Step-by-step: Adding Rotation
To begin, you’ll want to select the group of atoms or particles you wish to animate. SAMSON’s flexible selection tools allow you to do this easily, down to individual atoms or whole molecular complexes. Visit the selection documentation if you’re unfamiliar with selection operations.
Once selected, go to the Animation panel within the Animator. From here, simply double-click on the Rotate animation effect. This will insert a rotation between two keyframes, using the default Z-axis centered transformation. You can then adjust the timeline by dragging these keyframes to match the duration and timing you want for the rotation.
Customizing Your Animation
Sometimes a linear pace doesn’t convey the motion you have in mind. SAMSON allows you to edit the Easing curve that controls how the rotation interpolates over time. This is a great way to add realism or emphasis by making the rotation accelerate or decelerate in ways that feel more natural.
Updating from Older Versions
Earlier versions of SAMSON used a global “Animation” menu, but this has since been reorganized. All animation actions, including Rotate, can now be accessed through the Animator’s Animation panel. If you’re returning to SAMSON after a break, this might be a small change you’ll appreciate once you get used to it. The goal is a more intuitive and panel-based workflow.
Adding simple rotation is also an entry point to more complex animations. Once you’ve added a Rotate effect, you can compose it with others like Rock or Move atoms to create smooth, engaging molecular presentations.
To learn more and explore every option available with Rotate, visit the full documentation page for this feature here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/rotate/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.