Molecular Nodes (MN) is an add-on for Blender, the industry-leading 3D visualisation and animation program, that lets Blender understand structural biology data. MN is built on top of MDAnalysis, the widely-used Python package for analysing molecular dynamics simulations. MN imports structures from .pdb and .mmCIF files, molecular dynamics trajectories and topologies from a range of simulation packages, and density data from cryo-EM and cryo-ET in formats such as .map and .star. Once loaded, this data can be styled in highly customisable ways, animated from static crystal structures, and played back as full trajectories — all using Blender’s rendering engine.

Attendees will learn the basics of working in Blender, importing molecular data, and building animations from it. No prior Blender experience is required. If you’d like to animate your own data, you’re welcome to bring it along, though this isn’t required to follow the workshop.

Capacity: 30. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, until the registration deadline: 4 September 2026

Day 1, 10:00–17:00
Day 2, 10:00–15:30

What to bring:

• Laptop (more powerful GPU the better) 
• Laptop charger (you will run out of battery)
• External 3-button mouse (strongly encouraged, not required)
• Your own simulation/molecular data (optional)

Questions? Reach out to community@mdanalysis.org.

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