Watching molecular systems in motion can be incredibly helpful for understanding complex conformational changes, analyzing reaction mechanisms, or conveying structure-function relationships. But making professional animations from molecular paths can sometimes feel like a chore—especially when working with multiple trajectories that need to be synchronized and smoothed.
If you’ve ever tried to play back a trajectory of a molecular assembly in SAMSON and wanted a clean, smooth animation between specific frames, the Play path animation effect might be exactly what you need.
What is the Play Path Animation?
The Play path animation in SAMSON allows you to visualize a molecular path—typically a stored trajectory—between two keyframes of an animation. Whether you’re cycling through conformations or replaying a simulation, this feature helps you animate structural transitions effectively.
What’s particularly useful is its ability to handle multiple paths simultaneously. When you add more than one path to the same Play path animation, they stay in sync across the animation timeline, which is perfect for complex systems like protein-ligand interactions or multi-body assemblies.
Handling Frame Mismatches Smoothly
One common issue that molecular modelers run into is when the trajectory (i.e., the path) does not match the number of animation frames—they simply don’t align. If this happens, SAMSON applies smoothing by default to interpolate between the available points in the trajectory.
The smoothing makes transitions seamless, but you can turn it off if you want to stick to the exact original data without interpolation. To toggle smoothing, use the Inspector. For example, if your trajectory is noisy or computationally derived frame-by-frame and interpolation is misleading, keeping smoothing off might be the better option.
Quick Setup: Animating a Path
- First, select the path(s) you want to animate. These paths are typically stored as trajectory nodes in SAMSON.
- Open the Animator and go to the Animation panel.
- Double-click on Play path to apply the animation to your selected path.
- You’ll see two keyframes added to your timeline. These mark the start and end of the animation.
- Drag them to adjust the duration of your transition. You can also fine-tune how the animation interpolates using the easing curve.
It’s that simple—once the animation is running, you can preview real-time conformational changes and tweak your settings as needed.
Why This Matters
Molecular modeling is as much about communicating results as it is about deriving them. Whether you’re preparing a presentation, inspecting simulation results, or creating educational content, a synchronized and smoothed animation helps your audience focus on the science—not the raw data.
Interested in more customization? Visit the full documentation to learn all the options available when using Play path animations: 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.