When presenting molecular mechanisms and designs, clarity is everything. Whether you’re teaching, presenting your research, or building interactive lessons, you want your audience to follow key steps of molecular dynamics or conformational changes without distractions or information overload.
This is where the Stop animation effect in SAMSON can help. Instead of recording a video or clicking through dozens of frames, the Stop effect lets you create slide-like breaks in your animation so your audience has time to digest the structure before moving on.
What problem does it solve?
Imagine you’re showcasing how a protein folds, ligand binding steps, or a complex molecular pathway. If the animation runs continuously, it’s easy to miss key conformations or transitions. Even using play/pause requires you to time things precisely, which can still rush viewers or leave too much dead time.
With the Stop effect, you can program your animation to automatically pause at selected frames. That way, it’s not just a movie—it’s an interaction.
How it works
In SAMSON’s Animator, the Stop effect allows you to insert a stop keyframe at any point in your animation timeline. When the animation reaches that keyframe, it halts automatically. You can then resume with a simple press of the Space key or by clicking the Play button, just like you’d advance a presentation slide.
How to add the Stop effect
Here’s how to insert a Stop point in your animation:
- Open the Animation panel in SAMSON’s Animator workspace.
- Double-click the Stop effect. This will insert a keyframe at your current frame position.
- To reposition the stop, simply drag the keyframe along the timeline.
Note: You can move Stop keyframes at any time to fine-tune your presentation flow.
When should you use Stop?
If you’re trying to:
- Emphasize crucial conformational states
- Break long animations into sections
- Enable manual transitions during a live demo
then the Stop feature lets you structure your animations like slides in a scientific talk. This is especially effective in educational settings, where controlling the pace of information is key.
Bonus: Combine with Pause for more control
If you want the animation to continue automatically after a delay, consider using the Pause effect instead. But for full control and manual transitions that mimic presentation slides, Stop is ideal.
By combining animation keyframes with Stop effects, you’re essentially building a molecular slideshow — perfect for guiding students, colleagues, and viewers through every step of a molecular process, interactively.
To learn more, visit the full documentation on the Stop animation at https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/stop/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.