Visualizing molecular motion can be challenging—especially when reviewing complex structures or conformational changes. Many molecular modelers spend unnecessary time interpreting trajectory data frame by frame, struggling with jerky transitions and inconsistent playback speeds. If you’ve found yourself in this situation, SAMSON’s Play path animation may offer a smoother solution.
The Play path animation is designed to play one or more trajectory paths between two keyframes in the Animator, enabling seamless motion playback. Whether you’re cycling through conformations, analyzing structural transitions, or preparing visual materials, this tool is especially useful for illustrating molecular behavior over time.
Play Trajectories Effortlessly
To get started, simply select the path node(s) representing your trajectory. A path in SAMSON functions as a trajectory container, holding a sequence of molecular states across time. From the Animation panel, double-click the Play path animation effect. This inserts the animation between two keyframes by default, but you can always reposition the keyframes to match your desired playback timing.
Smoothing the Motion
One question users often have is: What happens if my animation and trajectory don’t have the same number of frames? By default, SAMSON automatically smooths the motion to fill the gap, interpolating intermediate frames to create a visually continuous movement.
This is ideal when you want smooth transitions without needing to manually align path frames with animation frames. However, if precision is more important than appearance (for example, when analyzing exact conformational states), you can disable this smoothing feature in the Inspector panel.
Fine-Tuning Transitions with Easing Curves
Another powerful feature is the ability to modify the Easing curve: how fast or slow the animation travels through frames. By default, animations use linear easing, meaning that motion progresses at a constant rate. But molecular events often involve accelerations and decelerations. You can make your visualization more natural by using non-linear curves, such as ease-in, ease-out, or ease-in-out. These curves can be selected and edited directly from the animation properties.
Multiple Paths, One Timeline
Working with multiple paths? SAMSON synchronizes them automatically when played with a Play path animation. This is especially useful in molecular assemblies or reaction pathways where coordinated motion between different components matters. As long as the paths are selected beforehand, you can apply the animation across all of them and tune their transitions collectively.
Conclusion
If you’ve been manually aligning keyframes, struggling with stuttered molecular transitions, or preparing recordings for presentations, give Play path a try. It blends powerful automation with precise control, letting you focus more on analysis—and less on tedious animation edits.
To learn more, visit the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/play-path/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.