Molecular modelers often struggle with one key pain during presentations: controlling the pace of complex animations when explaining key concepts. We’ve all experienced it—you’re presenting a biomolecular simulation, you play through a series of crucial transitions, and your audience gets left behind after frame 25. Rewinding and manually pausing isn’t ideal, especially during live demos or recorded sessions. That’s where SAMSON’s Stop animation effect comes in handy.
The Stop effect in SAMSON acts as a time-aware bookmark. It lets you freeze a molecular animation at a specific point during your presentation. Think of it as creating a slide within a dynamic animation, allowing you to explain what’s happening—without rushing or losing your audience.
How it Works
The Stop animation simply pauses the presentation timeline at a designated frame. Once added, you or your viewers can use the Space key or click the Play button in the Animator’s controls to resume playback.
Why this Small Feature Matters
This becomes especially valuable when dealing with molecule conformational changes, ligand binding trajectories, or interaction pathways that unfold over time. These processes may look stunning in motion but often require careful explanation at several key stages. Without the ability to pause reliably, you risk overwhelming your audience.
With the Stop effect, you can subdivide your animation into natural stopping points—creating a storyline. Each pause becomes a moment for digestion, making the presentation far more engaging and educational.
Adding a Stop Animation
- Open the Animator in SAMSON.
- Go to the Animation panel.
- Double-click the Stop animation effect.
- A keyframe is immediately added at the current frame. Move it to your preferred frame if necessary.
Pro Tip
You can reposition the Stop keyframe at any time, giving you full control over your storytelling flow.
Use Case: Building Knowledge Slides
Let’s say you’re showing an unfolding binding event between a ligand and its target protein. Insert a Stop at frame 0 to introduce the system. Add another at frame 30 to highlight ligand approach with detailed annotations. Pause again at frame 70 to emphasize conformational change. This mimics classic slide-based explanations, but with far more visual continuity.
For researchers preparing webinars, educational videos, or conference talks, this tiny Stop tool can bridge the gap between static slides and dynamic stories. Use it thoughtfully to make your animations more digestible and your presentations more interactive.
To learn more, read the full documentation on Stop animations here.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.