Most often, molecular orbital shapes are not strongly distorted while a molecule vibrates, as the MOs stay more or less attached to the geometrical skeleton. In our studies of the hydronium radical H 3 O . We are illustrating the concept of MO whose shape is dramatically distorted by molecular vibrations with the help of animations, thanks to the molecular graphics package MolDen . We show that animations can now be achieved without expensive hardware and software. Virtual Reality is also an interesting tool.
Animations shed yet another light on coupling between electronic and nuclear dynamics.
In general, animated graphics might be helpfull in the case of vibronic coupling and Jahn-Teller effects. More specifically, this approach should help to understand the dynamics of short lived protic species observed within femtosecond spectroscopy experiments performed in our research group.