eMovie: a storyboard-based tool for making molecular movies

The 3D structures of macromolecules are difficult to grasp and also to communicate. By their nature, movies or animations are particularly useful for highlighting key features by offering a ‘guided tour’ of structures and conformation changes. However, high-quality movies are rarely seen because they are currently difficult and time consuming to make. By adopting the traditional movie ‘storyboard’ concept, which gives guidance and direction to filming, eMovie makes the creation of lengthy molecular animations much easier. This tool is a plug-in for the open-source molecular graphics program PyMOL, and enables experts and novices alike to produce informative and high-quality molecular animations.