When creating molecular animations, it’s often essential to trace the movement of atoms over time. Whether you’re demonstrating a docking process, simulating molecular dynamics, or showcasing the motion generated by a custom animation, documenting the precise trajectory can be critical for analysis, reproducibility, and storytelling.
In SAMSON, the integrative platform for molecular design and simulation, this process is made possible through the Record path animation. This tool allows you to record atomic trajectories during a presentation and visually track if the recording is complete — a helpful feature for anyone building explanatory or educational sequences.
Why Record Paths?
Unlike static visuals, animated molecular models can show the evolution of a system, but only if the motion data is properly stored. Without recording the path, once the presentation finishes playing, you lose the exact movement of atoms. This makes it difficult to recreate the sequence or use it as input for further animations like Play path. Recording solves this, ensuring the atom positions are saved and can be exported.
Getting Started
To begin recording paths, open the Animator and double-click on the Record path effect from the Animation panel. This places a keyframe at the current frame in your timeline.
The key insight here is layer order: SAMSON executes animations from top to bottom. So make sure that the Record path animation appears after the animations you want to record — such as Assemble, Dock, or Simulate.
Check Progress While You Work
As the animation plays, SAMSON provides live visual feedback on the recording progress. A green segment on the Record path track means atomic positions are captured at that frame; red segments mean data is missing or invalid. This lets you intuitively see if you’re missing recordings without needing to debug the output later.
Boosting Performance Strategically
During complex presentations, recording paths can impact performance. You can toggle recording off to improve responsiveness — particularly handy when editing animations or once you’re satisfied with the captured motion. To do this:
- Go to the Inspector for the animation and disable “Enable recording”
- Or right-click the Record path animation in the Animator and uncheck “Enable recording”
Disabling the recording will darken the animation controllers in the Animator, reminding you that no new positions are being captured.
Exporting the Recorded Path
Once your animation has played through and all frames are green (i.e., successfully recorded), it’s time to extract the path. This is useful if you want to isolate specific movement patterns or reuse them elsewhere.
You can generate a Path node in your document either by:
- Clicking “Create path” in the animation’s Inspector
- Right-clicking on the Record path animation in the Animator and choosing “Create path”
Final Thoughts
The Record path feature is a straightforward yet powerful tool for molecular modelers looking to communicate dynamic behaviors with precision. By incorporating it strategically into your animation timeline, you can ensure that none of the motion you’re visualizing gets lost — and that you’re always able to use it later in simulations, replays, or analyses.
To explore all available options for recording paths and optimizing workflows, visit the full Record Path documentation at this link.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.