When analyzing molecular dynamics simulations or visualizing chemical reactions, it’s easy to lose track of the parts of the molecule you’re most interested in. As atoms shift, rotate, and translate across frames, it can be tedious to continuously reposition the camera manually. This breaks your focus and slows down your work. Fortunately, there’s a solution in SAMSON that handles this automatically: the Follow atoms camera animation.
The Follow atoms feature makes the camera continuously follow a group of atoms as they move — ideal for tracking a ligand’s binding path, monitoring a flexible region of a macromolecule, or focusing on a critical interaction during a trajectory. The camera position and view direction dynamically adjust over time, all while keeping a consistent distance from the atoms of interest.
How does it work?
The Follow atoms animation captures both the position and orientation of the camera at the beginning of the animation, then ensures that the camera target stays on the center of the selected atoms as they move. Even better, the camera maintains its relative spatial offset from this center, so your perspective stays fluid and intuitive throughout the animation.
Step-by-step workflow
- Select the atoms you want to follow. You can use SAMSON’s selection tools for this: select residues in a protein loop, atoms in a ligand, or any collection you want to track.
- Set up your camera in the desired orientation. This will be your starting view.
- In the Animator’s Track View, choose your start frame.
- Double-click on the Follow atoms animation in the Animation panel. This inserts a camera-follow animation that will move with your atoms over time.
- Adjust the end frame of the animation to define the duration of the tracking.
Fine-tuning the animation
If needed, you can modify camera behavior through animation properties:
- Apply to active camera: Make sure you’re editing the correct camera view.
- Keep camera upwards: Maintain a stable ‘up’ direction — useful if your grid is toggled on or off.
You can even reposition the camera manually during the animation using controllers, but the camera will always keep its target centered on the selected atoms’ geometric center.
Why this matters
In dynamic molecular systems, clarity of movement is key. Whether you’re preparing a video for a presentation or analyzing the fine-grained motion of a binding site, having the camera intelligently follow atoms saves time and improves focus. It’s a small feature that can significantly enhance how you interact with your systems in motion.
Learn more about the Follow atoms animation in the official SAMSON documentation.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.