Sometimes, less is more—especially when creating animations to communicate complex molecular systems. If you’re working in SAMSON to design a molecular presentation or video, you might want certain molecules or nodes to vanish at key moments to maintain focus or clarity.
This post explores the Hide animation in SAMSON: a simple but powerful tool for making molecular objects disappear at the right frame, and stay invisible until the end of the animation effect. This reduces clutter and helps your viewers concentrate on what truly matters—without confusion or distraction.
Why Hide?
Modelers and presenters often face the challenge of visual clutter. The 3D representation of molecular complexes can quickly become overwhelming. For example, when showcasing the binding of a ligand, the full protein environment might be useful at first—but could later obscure the actual interaction. Using the Hide animation lets you manage attention throughout the animated sequence.
How It Works
The Hide animation controls the visibility of nodes, not their transparency. It means the nodes are actually removed from view—they don’t interfere with depth cues or lighting effects, unlike semi-transparent elements.
It effectively combines two animations—Shown and Hidden—into a single step, reducing the need to sequence multiple keyframe events manually. This makes editing and managing your timeline easier, especially in presentations with multiple timed effects.
Quick Start Guide
- Select the molecular nodes you want to hide.
- Go to the Animation panel in the Animator interface.
- Double-click on the Hide animation effect.
By default, the animation inserts three keyframes:
- Between keyframes 1 and 2: nodes remain visible
- At keyframe 2: nodes disappear
- Between keyframes 2 and 3: nodes remain hidden
You can freely move the keyframes around on the timeline to fit your narrative.
Visual Example
Here’s a visual from the documentation that shows how molecules vanish smoothly using the Hide animation:
Tuning the Transition
Want to control how abruptly or smoothly the visibility switches? Adjust the Easing curve to define how the interpolation behaves around the keyframes. This lets you align the transitions with other visual or temporal cues in your animation.
Behind the Scenes: Best Practices
Consider combining the Hide animation with others, such as Appear or Flash, to emphasize introductions or transitions. The ability to make nodes appear and disappear strategically can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your molecular animations—especially when targeting teaching or sharing results.
To learn more and see additional usage tips, visit the official documentation: https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/animations/hide/
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net