Visual storytelling is a powerful tool in molecular modeling, whether you’re preparing a research presentation, explaining a mechanism, or highlighting a key structural feature. Molecular animations, when done right, can reveal dynamics that a static image simply can’t capture. However, creating animations from scratch often seems overwhelming — particularly for newcomers or busy researchers.
Fortunately, SAMSON offers an approachable solution for adding realistic motion to molecular structures. One such tool is the Rock animation, a quick way to breathe subtle but effective life into your selected atoms or molecules. It’s especially useful when you want to highlight a group of particles without distracting the viewer with excessive motion.
What Is the Rock Animation?
The Rock animation makes a group of selected particles oscillate gently around their geometric center. Imagine your molecule slightly tilting back and forth, pivoting around an axis going through its center and aligned with the global Z-axis. This movement gives the structure a sense of dimensionality and can make it easier to perceive spatial relationships between atoms.
This small movement might look simple, but it’s an elegant way to ensure your molecule doesn’t look flat or static. Rocking is especially effective during slow zoom-ins or when transitioning between visual scenes in an animation.
Adding the Rock Animation in SAMSON
Here’s how you can apply the Rock animation to your molecular system in just a few steps:
- First, select the group of particles you want to animate — this could be a protein domain, a ligand, or any group of atoms of your interest.
- Next, go to the Animation panel within the Animator interface and double-click the Rock effect.
- This action applies the animation between two keyframes. You can move these keyframes on the animation timeline to control the duration and timing of the motion.
Tweaking the Rock Motion
After applying the animation, you may want more control over how the particles move. For this, you can adjust the Easing curve. This controls how the motion accelerates or decelerates between keyframes — creating a more natural or stylized effect depending on your goal.
For example, if you want a smoother start and end to the movement (as opposed to a rigid oscillation), you can opt for an “ease in and out” curve. If you prefer a constant back-and-forth, a linear interpolation might be better.
When (and Why) to Use It
Here are a few common use cases where the Rock animation can be especially helpful:
- Highlighting a specific region in a tutorial or teaching material
- Creating video abstracts that explain your research visually
- Preparing poster sessions or conference materials that involve motion
- Guiding the viewer’s eye toward a ligand or active site
See It in Action
If you’re curious to see real examples, SAMSON Connect hosts several community documents that use the Rock animation. For instance: 2BRD – Rock animation.
Want to explore more? Visit the full documentation for the Rock animation here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/rock/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.