Context Property Editor

Construction Mode

Specifies the region of the operator stack to which new operators are added.

• The Modeling region is at the bottom of the operator stack. You can use this region to define the basic shape and topology of an object using both deformations and topology operators.

  This is often the region you want to freeze for performance reasons. You can freeze the Modeling region without affecting the other regions by clicking Freeze M on the Edit panel. If this button is labelled Freeze instead, right-click on it and choose Freeze Modeling.

  You can include animated operators in the Modeling region, if desired. However, the animation will be lost if you freeze the modeling. In addition, if there is shape animation above an animated deformation in the stack, there is a danger that shapes will "pop" when polygons intercollide.

• The Shape Modeling region is above the Modeling region in the operator stack. In addition to containing the Cluster Shape Combiner node, this region lets you apply deformations to define shape keys for shape animation. When you save or store a shape key in Shape Modeling mode, the effect of the operators in this region are stored in the shape key. When you create a shape clip by saving or applying a key, only the operators in this region are removed; this protects animated deformations that may be present in the next region, such as envelopes, from being removed.

• The Animation region is above the Shape Modeling region in the operator stack. You can use it for animated deformations that you don't want to be removed when you freeze the modeling or apply a shape, for example, deformations such as envelopes, waves, cages, lattices, spines, or even a simple Push with an animated amplitude.

• The Secondary Shape Modeling region is at the top of the operator stack. You can use it to create shape keys for things like muscle bulges on top of an enveloped character. Like the Shape Modeling region, the effect of the operators in this region are stored when you save or store a shape key in Secondary Shape Modeling mode, and the operators in this region are removed when you create a shape clip by saving or applying a key.

  Note that all shape keys are applied at the level of the Cluster Shape Combiner at the bottom of the Shape Modeling region, including shapes created in Secondary Shape Modeling mode. This means that Softimage must calculate the inverse deformation of any operators in the Animation region when it creates the shape key. As a result, shapes work well if there is only an envelope operator in the Animation region, but they might not always give the desired results when there are non-envelope deformations in the Animation region. This is unavoidable because not every deformation has an inverse.