When preparing a molecular animation—for a presentation, a class, or a social media post—clarity is everything. Visual clutter, overlapping elements, or sudden disappearances can distract your audience and cloud your key message. This is especially true when you want to gradually guide the viewer’s attention from one part of a molecular system to another.
This is where the Disappear animation in SAMSON becomes very useful. Instead of having molecular elements vanish abruptly from the scene, SAMSON’s Disappear animation allows them to fade out gradually by increasing their transparency. This small visual change can have a large impact on the clarity and smoothness of your presentation.
Why Transparency-Based Disappearance Matters
In molecular modeling, structures such as proteins, ligands, and surfaces often overlap. If you’re showcasing a binding site, exploring internal channels, or zooming in on an active center, you likely need to remove or reduce the visual impact of surrounding structures while keeping the spatial context. The Disappear animation lets you do just that—fade out background elements instead of hiding them abruptly.
This animation is applicable to elements with transparency attributes such as:
- Structural models
- Visual models
- Meshes
- Labels
Individual atoms and bonds, however, do not have independent opacity: they inherit it from their parent structural models. If you want to make atoms or bonds disappear gradually, you should apply the animation at the model level.
How the Animation Works
To add a Disappear animation:
- Select the nodes (e.g., models, meshes) you want to fade out.
- Double-click on the Disappear effect in the Animation panel.
SAMSON automatically inserts four keyframes for this effect:
- Keyframes 1–2: The selected nodes stay fully opaque.
- Keyframes 2–3: The nodes gradually increase in transparency, creating the fade-out effect.
- Keyframes 3–4: The nodes become fully transparent.
You can move these keyframes to define exactly when and at what speed the fade-out happens. The interpolation style between these frames can also be customized using the easing curve feature, allowing you to give a unique visual rhythm to the effect—e.g., linear, exponential, or custom curves for smooth acceleration or deceleration.
Practical Tips
- Use Disappear on supporting structures like membranes or solvent shells to highlight internal mechanisms without losing global context.
- Pair with the Appear animation to introduce and then remove parts of your model during a guided narration.
- Combine with camera path animations for cinematic transitions.
Here’s an example of what the fade-in and fade-out process looks like:
To learn more about how the Disappear animation works, visit the full documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.