An introductory look at the molecular visualization software to 3D animation software workflow, with step-by-step tutorials to acquaint the user to three of the popular molecular viewing softwares Chimera, Pymol and VMD. Pre-production tasks done in molecular viewing software to prepare PDB files for import into Maya (via the Molecular Maya plugin) will be discussed, including splitting macromolecules into multiple pieces and rebuilding large macromolecular complexes from separate PDB files.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Discussing pros and cons of the molecular viewing software Chimera, Pymol and VMD
• Reviewing the Chimera, Pymol and VMD interfaces
• Performing pre-production tasks on PDB files to prepare structural data for import into Maya