Athanor by arbastro
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How to animate a reaction mechanism

Draw a mechanism step with its curved arrows, open the Timeline (Animate in the top bar, or Ctrl+Shift+T) and press Animate my arrows. Athanor works out the steps that follow from the arrows and Play runs them as a film.

On a Mac, Ctrl is Cmd.

An SN2 step animated in Athanor: Before, the transition state, After.

Steps

  1. Draw the starting structures and the curved arrows for the step. See How to draw curved arrows for a mechanism.

  2. Press Animate in the top bar (or Ctrl+Shift+T). The Timeline opens under the canvas. With no steps yet it says so, and How an animation works explains the idea.

  3. Press Animate my arrows. Athanor reads each arrow, works out the product of the step, and adds the steps to the Timeline. For SN2 that is Before, Transition state and After, each with a picture and a caption you can edit.

    The Timeline under the canvas with three steps: Before, Transition state and After.The Timeline under the canvas with three steps: Before, Transition state and After.

  4. Press Play. The step plays as a film: bonds stretch, break and form along the arrows, and partial charges show in the transition state. Speed sets how fast.

    The transition state of the SN2 step, with partial bonds and partial charges in brackets.The transition state of the SN2 step, with partial bonds and partial charges in brackets.

  5. Change anything on the canvas and press Add next step to add a step of your own. Ctrl+Z takes back any change to the animation.

Note

Starting fresh? Home's Animate a mechanism or process opens a new document with the Timeline already open.

What next

MechanismsHow to add an energy diagram that follows the animationIn the Timeline, press the Energy diagram button. An energy profile appears on the canvas, with the steps along the bottom and a marker that follows the playhead as the animation plays.MechanismsHow to export a mechanism as a video, GIF or slidesOpen Export (Ctrl+Shift+E) and pick a format under Animation: MP4, GIF, Slides (.pptx), SVG, Lottie or Embed. Choose the background and the video size, then press Export. Save as video in the Timeline does the same.

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Last updated Nov 12, 2026