What Is BioViz Studio?

BioViz Studio from Dark Star Systems^® is a web-based tool to let you create beautiful short videos of proteins and other molecules. It's simple to use; you can create a video from scratch in twenty minutes. There's no software to download, it's all done right in the browser, and the final renders are done automatically, using professional 3d software in the cloud.

It's scientifically accurate: it starts with your own data, or search and pull automatically from the RCSB PDB databank.
It's secure: all molecular data processing is done locally, and all data is bank-level encrypted in our Google cloud storage.
It's easy to use: a new user can create a video in under half an hour. Just import your data, choose a background, set up any animation you like, and render.

It's beautiful: it creates accurate lighting and shadows, depth of field, and motion blur for realistic images. The background templates are created by Emmy Award-winning artists and designers. BioViz Studio's creators have worked with the biggest names in Hollywood for over twenty years creating Oscar-winning blockbusters.
It's inexpensive: you can create local previews as much as you want, and only pay for the final renders.

Who is BioViz Studio For?

BioViz Studio is intended for the busy biologist: anyone who needs a beautiful short video to show off their latest molecular or structural biology or computational chemistry work.

Students and Postdocs

You don't have to spend hours fiddling with Pymol or Chimera; in less than half an hour you can have a video that looks much better and will impress the people you're presenting your work to, whether it's colleagues at your next brown-bag lunch or an international conference.

University or Commercial Researchers

As a PI, you want your group's work to shine. BioViz Studio lets you create stunning videos for your group's web page, social media, or conference presentations. And with academic pricing, you can afford to really promote your work.

Biotech Startups

Do you want to "wow" your next investor presentation? Lead off with a short ten second video created with BioViz Studio, and you'll definitely have their attention. Your science will seal the deal, but it's well documented that attractive videos create attention and engagement, whether in person or as a hero video on your website.

Tutorials

BioViz Studio is easy to use. Just four steps and nothing to install:

Upload your data using our web app right in your browser, in standard formats such as PDB and mmCIF.
Select from visual templates designed by Emmy Award-winning artists and designers.
Filter and move the representations to showcase the important parts.
Render the video in the cloud – you’ll get notified when the render is complete.

Quick Intro

Our first tutorial shows how to create a complete, simple project from scratch. In under two minutes, you'll see how to:

Create a project
Import a molecule from PDB
Pick background and camera move
Render the final video

Create A Project With Animation

This tutorial creates a more interesting project with animation and adjustment of some of the representation parameters to change the look of the molecule. You'll see how to:

Log in and create a project
Import a molecule by searching PDB
Pick background and camera move
Work with multiple representations
Adjust parameters to change the look: opacity, materials, and transforms
Use Pose Frames to set up animations
Render the final video

UI Overview

This video walks through the user interface, including these sections:

Main molecule/animation view window
Right sidebar: add/remove molecules and representations, transforms, selection, and parameters
Timeline: play controls, animation controls and pose frames, camera track lock, and shot length
Left sidebar: import scene templates and camera tracks, postprocessing effects, and rendering
Navigation bar: create/load project, mouse control modes, and misc controls

Docking a Ligand: Deeper Dive

This tutorial shows how to dock a ligand with its molecule. Along the way it shows how to set up keyframes and use pose frames, transforms, and the timeline.

BioViz Studio Features

You can upload your own molecular data files or search the RCSB PDB database.
Supports most common file formats including mmCIF, PDB, PQR, GRO, SDF, MOL2, and MMTF.
Supports multiple molecules in a scene with global transformations (rotation, scaling, and translation) as well as local per-molecule transformations.
Most parameters are animatable
Renders are cloud-based using industry-standard toolsets

Highest render quality:

Antialiasing
Depth of field
Motion blur
Transparency
Physically based materials and lights
Ray-tracing for accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows

BioViz Studio Pricing

As of 2022, we have drastically reduced our pricing! We have created a much more efficient render back end, and want to pass that savings on to our users so you can create more gorgeous molecular animations.

There is no fee to sign in and use BioViz Studio to create animations and render previews. Final videos are charged by the second and by pixel resolution (standard def, hi def, 4K).
As a simple example, list price for a Standard HD 5-second video is $4.50 for academic use.
Preview renders are always free, so you can tweak the look until you get exactly what you want.

Timing: Five seconds is a good length for an intro spinning molecule or simple docking animation for a presentation; ten seconds is best for a more complex animation.

Resolution: SD (standard definition) and Standard HD are good for social media and laptop presentations; Full HD is crisper for large projection at meetings. Huge 4K is extreme, but if you're headlining a big conference, go for it.

Please contact us for discounted subscription-plan pricing.

Academic Pricing


Resolution SD (480p)	$ per sec $0.45	$ per 5 sec $2.25	$ per 10 sec $4.50
Resolution Standard HD (720p)	$ per sec $0.90	$ per 5 sec $4.50	$ per 10 sec $9.00
Resolution Full HD (1080p)	$ per sec $1.50	$ per 5 sec $7.50	$ per 10 sec $15.00
Resolution Huge 4K (2160p)	$ per sec $6.00	$ per 5 sec $30.00	$ per 10 sec $60.00

Please contact us for student and academic pricing.

Commercial Pricing


Resolution SD (480p)	$ per sec $1.80	$ per 5 sec $9.00	$ per 10 sec $18.00
Resolution Standard HD (720p)	$ per sec $3.60	$ per 5 sec $18.00	$ per 10 sec $36.00
Resolution Full HD (1080p)	$ per sec $6.00	$ per 5 sec $30.00	$ per 10 sec $60.00
Resolution Huge 4K (2160p)	$ per sec $24.00	$ per 5 sec $120.00	$ per 10 sec $240.00

Welcome to BioViz® Studio!