When working on molecular designs, it’s common to deal with intricate models where specific elements need to temporarily disappear for better visualization or emphasis. SAMSON’s Hide animation comes to the rescue, simplifying the process of making elements vanish in your presentations. This feature not only handles visibility conveniently but does so with precision over keyframes, making it a useful tool for molecular modelers seeking clarity in their work.
What is the Hide Animation?
The Hide animation effect allows you to make specific molecular nodes disappear from a scene at a given keyframe. These nodes will then stay hidden up to another designated keyframe, providing seamless transitions without requiring excessive transparency adjustments.
Unlike manual visibility changes, the Hide animation combines the “Shown” and “Hidden” effects into one straightforward tool. It’s particularly helpful when refining the visual storytelling of your molecular animations, making presentations more streamlined and engaging.
How to Add the Hide Animation
To effectively use the Hide animation, follow these steps:
- Identify the molecular nodes you want to hide.
- Double-click on the Hide animation effect located in the Animation panel of the Animator.
When you add the Hide animation, three keyframes appear:
- Keyframe 1 to Keyframe 2: The nodes remain visible during this interval.
- Keyframe 2: The nodes disappear.
- Keyframe 2 to Keyframe 3: The nodes stay hidden.
You can adjust the keyframes to control the timing and flow perfectly to suit your needs. Whether highlighting a specific part of a molecular structure or simplifying a complex view, this feature ensures precision and efficiency.
Fine-tuning Your Animation
The Hide animation also allows further customization. For instance, you can modify the Easing curve to control the interpolation of parameters between frames. This flexibility can help refine the visual transitions and ensure your animations fit the context beautifully.
In the above image, you can see the Hide animation in action, showing how nodes smoothly disappear and stay hidden during specific keyframes.
A Practical Note
It’s worth noting that in earlier versions of SAMSON, users used an Animation menu to control these features. This menu has been deprecated, but all animations, including the Hide effect, can now be accessed through the Animation panel of the Animator, providing a more streamlined interface.
For more detailed guidance and examples, refer to the full documentation here.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.