When creating molecular presentations, clarity and visual appeal are key. Molecular modelers often need to explain complex mechanisms, compare conformational states, or guide an audience through molecular interactions. But managing visual transitions between slides or images in a molecular visualization platform can become a tedious process—especially when integrating custom backgrounds like diagrams or presentation slides.
SAMSON’s Set background animation offers a simple yet effective solution to this problem. It allows you to smoothly change backgrounds between two frames in your molecular presentation. These background transitions can include solid colors or full images (like annotated slides). This small feature can enhance audience engagement and improve presentation flow—especially useful for educators, researchers, and anyone who presents molecular data regularly.
What it does
The Set background animation lets you define how the scene background looks at two key points in time: the start and the end of the animation. This can be used to transition between two images, fade into a new slide, or even shift between a plain color and a visual reference.
Background images can either be contained within the viewer (to make sure the whole image is visible) or cover the background (where the image might be cropped to fit). This allows you to control what part of the image is visible depending on the presentation needs.
Automatic interpolation
If you add more than one Set background animation in your presentation, SAMSON will automatically interpolate between them. This leads to smooth transitions, such as a slow fade from one background to the next. This is particularly helpful in situations where background images act as slide-like backdrops—making your molecular models appear against different explanatory images as the story unfolds.
Controlling the transition with easing curves
To refine how background transitions unfold over time, you can modify the easing curve. Easing curves control the pace of interpolation—whether the transition starts slowly then speeds up, stays linear, or follows other dynamic patterns.
This flexibility means you can mimic the natural rhythm of a talk or match transitions to the pace of your narration.
How to add a Set background animation
- Go to the Animation panel inside the Animator.
- Double-click on the Set background animation. This will add a start keyframe at your current frame.
- Adjust the keyframes on the timeline to control when the background change begins and ends.
- If needed, add another Set background animation later in your timeline—interpolations will be handled automatically!
Use case tips
Here are a few good use cases where Set background animations come in handy:
- Introduce a molecule in front of a title slide, then fade into a clean dark background during rotation.
- Switch between background diagrams that correspond to different biochemical steps.
- Fade in a reference image from a paper to cross-check structural features.
You can see the result in the following example:
To learn more about Set background animations and how to customize them, visit the full documentation page here: Set background animation feature.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download it from https://www.samson-connect.net.