Models in Softimage are containers (like mini scenes) that make it easy to organize elements that need to be kept together, such as all the parts of a character.
The main reasons for using models with animation is that they provide the easiest way to import and export animated objects between scenes, and to copy animation between objects. All the animation is kept within the model and can be applied to objects in another model.
Models also make it easy to use the animation mixer. Each model can only have one Mixer node that contains mixer data. If the characters in the scene aren’t within models, you have only one Mixer node for the whole scene (in the scene root, which is technically a model) which means that you can’t easily copy animation from one character to another.
For more information, see Setting Up Characters within a Model Structure [ Character Animation ] and Models and the Mixer
[ Nonlinear Animation ].
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5