One of the most common challenges in molecular animation is conveying focus without distracting the viewer. Especially when zooming in to highlight a specific active site or molecular interaction, small shifts in camera orientation or unintended changes in depth-of-field settings can cause animations to feel wobbly or visually inconsistent.
For molecular modelers, clean visual storytelling is crucial—whether explaining a mechanism to a colleague, preparing a figure for a publication, or making animations for student presentations.
Zooming In Without Changing the Focus Point
The Zoom camera animation tool in SAMSON offers a simple way to address this challenge. Rather than changing both camera position and its target throughout an animation (as the Dolly camera animation does), the Zoom camera animation in SAMSON only modifies the camera’s position between the start and end frames. That means your focus point—the region of interest—stays fixed on-screen. 🎯
This is especially useful when you’re using effects like Fog or Depth-of-field. These effects depend on the camera’s target point to calculate visual properties like focus or softness. By leaving the target constant, the Zoom camera animation ensures continuity in these effects during the zoom in or out—that means no unexpected blur or shift in the focal plane during your animation.
How to Use the Zoom Camera Animation
- Choose the start frame in the Animator’s Track view and orient your camera.
- In the Animation panel, double-click the Zoom camera effect.
- Set the end frame with your desired zoom level using the same fixed viewpoint.
Control and Fine-Tuning
By default, the effect applies to the active camera. If needed, you can inspect the animation object and reassign it to another camera or adjust behavior using parameters like Apply to active camera and Keep camera upwards—this last one is helpful when you’re working with the grid turned on or off.
You can also adjust how the camera moves over time by modifying the Easing curve. This lets you design zooms that are gradual, accelerated, or follow other temporal curves depending on the visual flow you need.
If camera positions aren’t quite right, you can further refine them using animation controllers. Check out the guide to adjusting camera positions for additional tips.
In short, the Zoom camera animation is ideal for producing smoother, more focused animations that maintain visual coherence—perfect for honing in on molecular details without introducing disorienting shifts.
To learn more about this feature, visit the Zoom Camera Animation documentation page.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.