If you’ve ever created molecular presentations or movies, you’ve likely encountered this common issue: your molecules look exactly right in one frame and completely off in the next. This is especially true when animations are missing camera transitions or your camera angle suddenly shifts mid-presentation. 😕
The good news? SAMSON offers a simple solution to this problem: the Hold camera animation. In this post, we’ll explore how this often-overlooked animation can help maintain camera stability and protect your molecular scene between key transitions.
Why does this happen?
When you’re animating complex molecules with multiple visual elements—ribbons, atoms, surfaces, backgrounds—camera control becomes essential. Visual inconsistency often arises not because of errors in your animation, but because the camera defaults to its latest manually adjusted position, especially in frames where no explicit camera animation has been set. That’s where Hold camera comes in.
What is ‘Hold camera’?
The Hold camera animation does exactly what it sounds like: it freezes the current camera position and orientation at a specific frame. This tells SAMSON to maintain that view for the duration of the animation segment—ensuring nothing changes until you tell it to.
It acts like a placeholder, ensuring continuity in your presentations or exported movies.
When should you use it?
A good rule of thumb: if you’re in a frame without any other camera animations (orbit, move camera, dolly, follow atoms, etc.), but want your view to remain fixed, insert a Hold camera animation. This helps you:
- Prevent accidental shifts due to interactive camera usage
- Preserve visual focus on a particular region
- Better control transitions between animations
How to use Hold camera in SAMSON
Accessing and applying the Hold camera animation is straightforward:
- Open the Animator from Interface > Animator or by pressing Ctrl + 7 (or Cmd + 7 on macOS).
- Set the camera to the desired viewpoint in the viewport.
- In the Animator, double-click on the Hold camera animation from the Camera animations tab.
SAMSON will insert an animation track for the camera where both the start and end keyframes are locked to your current view.
Visual indicator
You’ll immediately see a track on the Animator timeline for the Hold camera animation. Even though nothing seems to be moving, this visual confirmation ensures SAMSON will maintain that exact viewpoint across the specified frames.
Tips for better consistency
- Apply Hold camera at the start and end of your presentation unless you’re transitioning directly into other camera motions.
- Combine it with Hold atoms animations to create completely stable scenes.
- Use the Move camera or Orbit camera animations in between two Hold camera blocks to guide your viewer smoothly from one viewpoint to another.
Final thoughts
While it might seem like a minor detail, inserting Hold camera animations between more complex motions gives you control and predictability—essential for creating focused, professional molecular movies or slides.
Want to dive into the full range of animation tools? Browse the comprehensive SAMSON Animator documentation here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/presenting/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.