Animation Effects
Every Molkit animation plays the effects below, in the preview window and in exported files. Files saved before the effects were added play them too when you open them.
Glow on new bonds
A bond that forms between states flashes with a soft amber glow. The glow builds during the second half of the transition, holds while the new state settles, and fades out.
Bond-break fragments
A bond that breaks shatters into a few jagged pieces that drift and turn slightly as they fade. The pieces are the same every time the animation plays.
Some breaking bonds fade out without fragments:
- hydrogen bonds, coordination bonds and dative bonds;
- a bond that becomes a lone pair (see below);
- a bond that breaks as part of a detected nucleophilic attack;
- a bond that slides onto a label that absorbs its atom.
Fragments start from where the bond is at that moment, so a bond that is moving when it breaks does not jump back to its starting position first.
Lone pair to bond
A lone pair that becomes a bond, or a bond that becomes a lone pair, is animated as one object: the dots slide, stretch into a line and become the bond, or the reverse. Reaction Choreography describes when this applies.
Drift
Molecules that leave between states drift away from the reaction center, and molecules that arrive drift in toward it. The distance depends on the size of the molecule, and the motion is fast at first and then settles. Reaction Choreography describes the rules.
Loop cross-dissolve
When Loop is checked in the preview window, the last state fades out and the first state fades back in at the loop point, instead of cutting straight back to the start. Each fade takes 0.6 seconds.
An exported animated SVG with Loop continuously checked fades its last state out before it restarts. See Animation Export.