As a molecular modeler, communicating your findings effectively often involves creating compelling animations. But what if you need certain elements to disappear at precise moments of your animation timeline? This is where SAMSON’s Hide animation effect can make a difference. This blog post explores how the Hide animation works and helps you integrate it into your workflows.
Why the Hide Animation is Useful
Animations are powerful tools for molecular modeling presentations, providing clarity and enhancing visual storylines. However, managing visibility can be challenging when your molecular scenes need to emphasize certain nodes while excluding others. The Hide animation in SAMSON offers a straightforward solution: it allows nodes to disappear at specific keyframes and remain hidden for as long as needed. Importantly, this is handled via the nodes’ visibility settings, not their transparency, ensuring a clean and precise control over what is shown and what is omitted in your animation.
How to Add the Hide Animation
Steps for incorporating the Hide animation into your molecular animation are as easy as 1-2-3:
- Select Nodes: Pick the molecular nodes you want to hide.
- Choose Hide Animation: Navigate to the Animation panel in the Animator and double-click on the Hide animation effect.
- Adjust Keyframes: The animation creates three keyframes by default:
- Keyframe 1 – Node stays visible up to this point.
- Keyframe 2 – Node disappears at this point.
- Keyframe 3 – Node stays hidden beyond this point.
- Move these keyframes to tailor the timing of visibility changes to your needs.
Further Enhancing Your Animations
The Hide animation can be combined with other effects for diverse and dynamic presentations. For instance, consider using the Show, Appear, or Disappear animations to create fluid transitions. Additionally, refine the way the animation plays out by modifying the Easing curve, which controls how the parameters are interpolated between keyframes.
Important Notes
Customization Flexibility: All keyframes of the Hide animation are movable, giving you granular control over timing and presentation. Experimenting with their positions can lead to visually engaging animations tailored to specific molecular phenomena.
Updated Animator Interface: While earlier versions of SAMSON utilized an ‘Animation menu,’ all animations are now accessible from the Animation panel of the Animator, streamlining the workflow.
For more detailed instructions, visit the official documentation page.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.