When preparing animations of molecular models, one of the most common challenges is producing smooth vertical camera motions that enhance understanding without distracting the viewer. For example, you may want to show a ligand slowly approaching a binding pocket, or reveal active sites from a top-down viewpoint. While rotating or zooming are fairly straightforward, creating vertical tracking motions can be unintuitive — unless you’ve discovered the Pedestal camera animation in SAMSON.
The Pedestal camera animation is part of SAMSON’s animation toolkit, and was designed specifically to move the camera vertically between two frames. It adjusts both the camera’s position and its target point in parallel, ensuring the subject of the scene remains centered while the viewpoint traverses upward or downward. This is especially helpful in molecular modeling when reviewing elongated structures like DNA helices, fibrils, or multi-domain protein complexes.
Why vertical motion is useful
Imagine you’re working on a large protein complex and want to highlight binding regions along a vertical axis. Rotating horizontally would only partially show the shape. Tilting manually with inconsistent motions can lead to confusing perspectives. The Pedestal camera effect ensures a constant vertical motion, preserving focus on the molecule and producing a smooth, informative visual.
How to use it
First, go to the Animator’s Track view and choose your start frame — orient the view as you’d like to begin. Then, simply double-click the Pedestal camera effect in the Animation panel. SAMSON will automatically record the position and target point of the current active camera. By default, the end frame will be a vertical shift upward of the same view.
You can adjust the timing by setting a custom end frame. Remember, both the camera’s eye and the target will move upward together, keeping the same relative direction. If desired, you can also inspect the animation to adjust:
- Active camera: Assign a different camera if needed.
- Keep camera upwards: Maintain orientation respect to the grid or manual setup.
- Easing curve: Customize how the camera accelerates/decelerates between frames.
While you can further tweak camera positions, keep in mind that the Pedestal camera effect has specific constraints: the motion is limited to the vertical direction in the camera’s reference frame.
Visual example
When to use it
This animation is ideal when highlighting features along a vertical structure — whether viewing layers in a bilayer membrane, scanning through a lattice, or showcasing volume through a plume of ligands. Horizontal equivalents (like the Truck camera) can complement these for lateral motions.
By combining the Pedestal camera with other effects like Move camera or rotation, you can build complex sequences that better reveal spatial relationships in molecular systems.
To learn more and view the full documentation on the Pedestal camera, visit the original page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/pedestal-camera/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. To get started, download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.