Presenting molecular structures in a compelling and understandable way can be challenging—especially when sharing models with others who may not be familiar with atomic-level geometry. While static visuals are useful, they often fail to convey spatial relationships and structural details intuitively. This is where animation effects in SAMSON come into play, especially the Rock animation.
The Rock animation in SAMSON offers a simple but powerful way to enhance molecular presentations by gently oscillating a group of atoms. This mimics the effect of “rocking” a sample under a microscope to better observe its 3D shape, helping viewers perceive volume and depth in your molecular system. It’s not just about visual flair—it’s a tool for clarity.
What Does the Rock Animation Do?
This animation effect causes a selected group of particles to oscillate around their geometric center along a vector aligned with the Z-axis. The resulting effect is a back-and-forth rocking motion that reveals hidden features by varying the viewing angle slightly over time.
The Rock animation is ideal for presentations, visualizations for teaching, or even preparing videos for publications or conferences. Unlike full rotations, the rocking motion is subtle and repetitive, allowing the viewer to focus on specific features without disorienting movement.
How to Add the Rock Animation
1. Select the group of particles you’d like to animate. This can be any substructure—just make sure they are the atoms you want to highlight.
2. Open the Animation panel in the Animator workspace.
3. Double-click the Rock animation effect.
4. SAMSON will automatically insert two keyframes between which the group rocks. You can move these keyframes to control the duration and timing of the effect.
Customization and Tips
You can fine-tune the effect to make it suit your presentation style:
- Duration: Change the position of the keyframes on the timeline to speed up or slow down the animation.
- Easing curve: Modify how the animation progresses between keyframes using an easing curve. This can help create a smoother or more dynamic motion, depending on your needs.
Here’s a working example from the SAMSON community that uses the Rock animation:
2BRD – Rock animation.
If your goal is to make a static presentation more engaging or to help others understand subtle structural relationships in a model, the Rock effect is a simple solution that adds a lot of value.
For more technical details, check the full documentation page here: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/rock/.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download the platform at https://www.samson-connect.net.