Directed camera mouvement along cartoon chain
Dear ChimeraX users! I would like to create an artistic movie for an X-ray structure making an impression that I am running on the protein cartoon like on the serpentine road. I have tried the following trivial algorithm: view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :4 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 ... view :200 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 However, It just moved the camera focusing on each residue, without giving the impression of movement along the protein chain. Do we have a special orient option that could introduce such smooth movements ? Many thanks in advance! Enrico
Hello! Please see the "view" help. <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/view.html#name> As explained in the "Named Views and Transitions" section linked above: You would need to create the view names ahead of time (normally you'd save a session with all of these views and their names so that your movie script does not need to re-make them), then you can use the "frames" option to gradually move between them. e.g. view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name one view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name two view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name three [... etc to create all the named views... then you could save a session if you don't want to create the same views over and over to remake your movie. In this session you can then use your movie script to go to these named views in a specified number of frames...] view one view two 60 view three 60 I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Jul 15, 2025, at 2:40 PM, Enrico Desperados via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear ChimeraX users!
I would like to create an artistic movie for an X-ray structure making an impression that I am running on the protein cartoon like on the serpentine road.
I have tried the following trivial algorithm:
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :4 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 ... view :200 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30
However, It just moved the camera focusing on each residue, without giving the impression of movement along the protein chain. Do we have a special orient option that could introduce such smooth movements ?
Many thanks in advance!
Enrico
Hello Elaine! I've already tried to move between points this using fly e.g. view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point1 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point2 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 ... fly 80 start point1 point2 point3 point4 point5 The problem is that the resulting movie does not create any impression moving along the polymer chain like on a serpentine road since 1) when automatize point saving using view just centering on the residue number (view :1) it creates a distinct camera scene focusing on each residue, which difficult to combine in the smooth movement at given direction, given than 2) the transitions between the points are also not controllable So each time I ought to select the views manually (which always is better ) and then fly between them. No possibilities to automate such scene picking ? Yours with thanks, Enrico Il giorno mer 16 lug 2025 alle ore 01:20 Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> ha scritto:
Hello! Please see the "view" help. <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/view.html#name>
As explained in the "Named Views and Transitions" section linked above: You would need to create the view names ahead of time (normally you'd save a session with all of these views and their names so that your movie script does not need to re-make them), then you can use the "frames" option to gradually move between them. e.g.
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name one view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name two view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name three [... etc to create all the named views... then you could save a session if you don't want to create the same views over and over to remake your movie. In this session you can then use your movie script to go to these named views in a specified number of frames...] view one view two 60 view three 60
I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Jul 15, 2025, at 2:40 PM, Enrico Desperados via ChimeraX-users < chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear ChimeraX users!
I would like to create an artistic movie for an X-ray structure making an impression that I am running on the protein cartoon like on the serpentine road.
I have tried the following trivial algorithm:
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :4 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 ... view :200 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30
However, It just moved the camera focusing on each residue, without giving the impression of movement along the protein chain. Do we have a special orient option that could introduce such smooth movements ?
Many thanks in advance!
Enrico
Sorry, no other choices that I can think of. Probably in some professional (and not free) general-purpose animation software you can define a fancy curved line for the camera to go along but we don't have anything like that. Elaine
On Jul 16, 2025, at 12:40 AM, Enrico Martinez <jmsstarlight@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Elaine!
I've already tried to move between points this using fly e.g.
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point1 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point2 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 ...
fly 80 start point1 point2 point3 point4 point5
The problem is that the resulting movie does not create any impression moving along the polymer chain like on a serpentine road since 1) when automatize point saving using view just centering on the residue number (view :1) it creates a distinct camera scene focusing on each residue, which difficult to combine in the smooth movement at given direction, given than 2) the transitions between the points are also not controllable
So each time I ought to select the views manually (which always is better ) and then fly between them. No possibilities to automate such scene picking ?
Yours with thanks,
Enrico
Il giorno mer 16 lug 2025 alle ore 01:20 Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> ha scritto: Hello! Please see the "view" help. <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/view.html#name>
As explained in the "Named Views and Transitions" section linked above: You would need to create the view names ahead of time (normally you'd save a session with all of these views and their names so that your movie script does not need to re-make them), then you can use the "frames" option to gradually move between them. e.g.
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name one view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name two view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name three [... etc to create all the named views... then you could save a session if you don't want to create the same views over and over to remake your movie. In this session you can then use your movie script to go to these named views in a specified number of frames...] view one view two 60 view three 60
I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Jul 15, 2025, at 2:40 PM, Enrico Desperados via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear ChimeraX users!
I would like to create an artistic movie for an X-ray structure making an impression that I am running on the protein cartoon like on the serpentine road.
I have tried the following trivial algorithm:
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :4 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 ... view :200 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30
However, It just moved the camera focusing on each residue, without giving the impression of movement along the protein chain. Do we have a special orient option that could introduce such smooth movements ?
Many thanks in advance!
Enrico
That's right! I actually saw such exploration inside the protein made by another visual package and thought that Chimera could do something like that, or at least a possibility to script it .. I've also tried to define centroids for some residues and focus the camera on them (instead of just view :residue) but it still does not work as expected .. Your sincerely Enrico Il giorno mer 16 lug 2025 alle ore 17:26 Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> ha scritto:
Sorry, no other choices that I can think of. Probably in some professional (and not free) general-purpose animation software you can define a fancy curved line for the camera to go along but we don't have anything like that.
Elaine
On Jul 16, 2025, at 12:40 AM, Enrico Martinez <jmsstarlight@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Elaine!
I've already tried to move between points this using fly e.g.
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point1 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name point2 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 ...
fly 80 start point1 point2 point3 point4 point5
The problem is that the resulting movie does not create any impression moving along the polymer chain like on a serpentine road since 1) when automatize point saving using view just centering on the residue number (view :1) it creates a distinct camera scene focusing on each residue, which difficult to combine in the smooth movement at given direction, given than 2) the transitions between the points are also not controllable
So each time I ought to select the views manually (which always is better ) and then fly between them. No possibilities to automate such scene picking ?
Yours with thanks,
Enrico
Il giorno mer 16 lug 2025 alle ore 01:20 Elaine Meng <meng@cgl.ucsf.edu> ha scritto: Hello! Please see the "view" help. <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/view.html#name>
As explained in the "Named Views and Transitions" section linked above: You would need to create the view names ahead of time (normally you'd save a session with all of these views and their names so that your movie script does not need to re-make them), then you can use the "frames" option to gradually move between them. e.g.
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name one view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name two view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6 view name three [... etc to create all the named views... then you could save a session if you don't want to create the same views over and over to remake your movie. In this session you can then use your movie script to go to these named views in a specified number of frames...] view one view two 60 view three 60
I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco
On Jul 15, 2025, at 2:40 PM, Enrico Desperados via ChimeraX-users < chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Dear ChimeraX users!
I would like to create an artistic movie for an X-ray structure making an impression that I am running on the protein cartoon like on the serpentine road.
I have tried the following trivial algorithm:
view :1 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :2 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :3 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 view :4 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30 ... view :200 clip false; zoom 0.6; wait 30
However, It just moved the camera focusing on each residue, without giving the impression of movement along the protein chain. Do we have a special orient option that could introduce such smooth movements ?
Many thanks in advance!
Enrico
participants (3)
-
Elaine Meng -
Enrico Desperados -
Enrico Martinez