When preparing molecular animations, timing is everything. If you’re showing a protein interaction, reaction mechanism, or structural transition, you often want specific molecules or components to become visible at just the right moment. Many molecular modelers struggle with objects either popping in too early or lingering too long, breaking the clarity of their visual story.
This is exactly where the Show animation in SAMSON can help. It’s designed to make one or more molecular nodes appear precisely at a chosen keyframe and stay visible until the end. This fine control over visibility enables clearer presentations and smoother sequences.
What does “Show” actually do?
The Show animation is different from simply adjusting transparency. It works by toggling the actual visibility of nodes in the scene. This allows for better performance and clarity, especially in complex animations involving many molecular structures or objects.
Essentially, the Show animation combines two other animations behind the scenes: Hidden followed directly by Shown. It saves time by eliminating the need to manually place these two animations in sequence — just use Show and you’re done.
When should you use the Show animation?
This animation is useful in many scenarios:
- Want to delay the appearance of a ligand until the binding site is introduced?
- Need to keep a subunit hidden until the viewer understands the core structure?
- Planning to walk through a multi-step mechanism step by step?
With Show, you can orchestrate these visual events seamlessly.
How to add the Show animation:
- Select the nodes you want to appear later in the animation.
- Double-click the Show animation in the Animation panel of the Animator.
Once added, you’ll see 3 keyframes associated with the Show animation:
- Between keyframes 1 and 2: the selected nodes remain hidden.
- At keyframe 2: the nodes become visible.
- Between keyframes 2 and 3: the nodes stay visible.
You can move the keyframes as needed in the timeline to control precisely when things appear.
Pro tip: Use easing curves
If you want to fine-tune the way the visibility transition feels (even though it’s not using transparency), play with easing curves. This can help synchronize complex sequences where multiple objects appear at different intervals.
What it looks like in practice
Here’s an example of the Show animation in action:
If you’re transitioning from older versions of SAMSON, note that the Animation menu is no longer used — everything is now available in the Animator panel, making it easier to manage animations without switching interfaces.
To learn more and explore other related animations like Hide, Appear, or Flash, visit the original documentation page: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/show/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.