Visual communication is essential in molecular modeling. Whether you’re preparing a presentation, teaching a concept, or sharing insights with a multidisciplinary team, the ability to control what your audience sees—and when—is key.
However, many molecular modelers face a common challenge: keeping an audience focused when showcasing large or complex systems. Constant motion and overlapping structures can easily distract or confuse viewers, reducing the impact of your explanation.
To address this, SAMSON includes a set of presentation-friendly animations that go beyond simply moving atoms and molecules. In particular, three lesser-known—but very helpful—animations are:
- Pause: To temporarily freeze the animation and give time for explanation.
- Hold atoms / Hold camera: To maintain the focus on specific molecular parts or viewpoints.
- Set background: To emphasize contrast or include informative background slides during a presentation.
Let’s explore how these animations work together to improve clarity and engagement in your digital storytelling.
1. Pause: Take a breath, then explain
The Pause animation allows you to stop the flow of the animation timeline at any point—giving you time to talk, highlight something important, or engage with your audience. This is useful if you’ve just shown a docking process or complex transformation and want to pause and describe what happened.
To use it in SAMSON, simply insert a Pause node in the animation timeline where you’d like the timeline to momentarily stop.
2. Hold atoms & Hold camera: Precision focus
If you’ve ever experienced an unintended zoom-out during an animation or lost track of which atoms were involved in an interaction, these animations are for you.
Hold atoms ensures some parts of the structure remain fixed in space, even as other animations unfold. For example, you could hold a ligand in place while a receptor folds around it.
Hold camera, on the other hand, locks the viewpoint. This helps stabilize the visual experience during explanatory parts, reducing viewer fatigue and disorientation.
3. Set background: Context matters
Changes in background color or the use of background images can help highlight structural features. With Set background, you can switch from a dark analytical background to a light one for overlays, or even display educational slides in the background while the molecular system stays fixed—effectively merging your structural visualization and your presentation material.
This can be very helpful during classroom lectures or recorded tutorials, where visual consistency supports understanding.
Creating a professional presentation
When combined, these animations allow you to build a structured molecular presentation:
- Use
Hold camerato create a steady view. - Center attention with
Hold atoms. - Display a contextual slide using
Set background. - Walk through the sequence, pausing at key steps using the
Pauseanimation.
This sequence is particularly useful when recording videos, live teaching, or guiding colleagues through a complex hypothesis.
Bonus tip
If you’re recording, consider pairing these animation steps with voice-over narration. It delivers a focused and precise explanation aligned with the animated content.
To learn more about these and other animation options, including motion paths and highlighting animations, visit the full documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.