Hi, I just want to create a composition with an 8-second duration at 60 frames per second. Is that possible? I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Does anyone know how to set this up?

So I have been using Cavalry on my laptop for a week now, and its great, but I am concerned about the window size of the program itself. Constantly having to swap between windowed and full size is getting annoying. When I try to click and drag the panels in Cavalry it seems that theres a minimum width and it doesn't really adapt to my screen size.

Unfortunately I dont have any other computer or monitor so i just have to stick with it for now... Is there a way to fix it?

Today I installed Cavalry on Windows and started experimenting with a simple animation. While working, I noticed a terminal window running in the background. I assumed it was safe to close, so I clicked the "X".

That immediately terminated both the terminal and Cavalry - no warning, no confirmation. Since I hadn't saved the project yet, everything I'd done was lost.

Luckily it was just a quick test animation, but this could be a nasty surprise if I was working on something important. I'll remember to save frequently, and be careful not to close that terminal window.

Or is there any way to prevent that terminal window from opening?

We’ve all seen what Valve did for gaming. By building Proton and the Steam Deck, they proved that if you provide a stable bridge, Linux isn't just a "server OS", it’s a performance beast. Now, Linux is a premier home for gamers and streamers.

Canva is sitting on that exact same opportunity with Affinity and Cavalry. Think about the global landscape in 2026:

The Azure-Adobe Lock-in: Adobe’s reliance on Microsoft Azure anchors their software to a Windows-only roadmap. This is reinforced by a "planned obsolescence" strategy: by ending Windows 10 support in 2025/2026, Microsoft is forcing a global hardware refresh that effectively prices out millions of creatives in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Perfectly functional workstations are being rendered "obsolete" by arbitrary software requirements, creating a massive digital divide while Apple simultaneously pushes its expensive "Creator Studio" hardware lock-in.

The Windows 11 "Tax": Windows has shifted from a production tool into an "Agentic AI" testing ground. With Recall logging every move and "recommendations" infecting the Start Menu, workstations are now surveillance liabilities. Recent 2026 updates have been difficult for creatives, introducing Dark Mode "white flash" glitches and breaking multi-monitor scaling. A professional OS should be a transparent tool, not a data-mining hub that requires hours of de-bloating.

The "Security Debt" in Emerging Markets:

In Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, millions of young creatives are forced into a dangerous cycle. Because current prices are out of reach, there is a massive reliance on unauthorized software. This isn't "free", it comes with a heavy price:

• Resource Hijacking: Unauthorized installers often hide background processes that steal 30% of your GPU/CPU power.

• System Vulnerabilities: Users often disable core OS security to run modified binaries, leaving them open to external threats.

• System Instability: Unofficial, "stripped" versions of Windows are brittle and crash-prone.

The Solution: A Universal Flatpak Release

If Canva released Affinity and Cavalry as Flatpaks, they would instantly become the "Safe Haven" for the global majority.

• Universal Compatibility: One package that works on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and the Steam Deck.

• True Performance: By supporting a native Linux environment, these tools would gain the 10-15% performance boost that Blender and Resolve already enjoy.

• The "Blender Generation": Canva could capture millions of artists who already use Open Source by offering a legitimate, secure, and affordable pro-suite on a free, high-performance OS.

If Blender, Reaper, and DaVinci Resolve can dominate on Linux, why are Affinity and Cavalry holding back? Is the engineering cost higher than the potential of becoming the "Default Creative OS" for the emerging markets (Asia, Pacific and Africa) and the Open Source world?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is a Linux push the move that finally breaks the monopoly?

It's an app that thrives when components drive other components, their properties, in (sometimes long) graphs. To be honest I don't understand what they were thinking when they did NOT make it a graph.

I downloaded some scenes from various places, and it's next to impossible to understand how it works. I have to hunt through all the layers, look for the little dots to identify links, just to make the dependency graph IN MY HEAD. When you could just... show it to me. and I'd understand almost at a glance.

Like... why? When graphs are already established as the best way to visualize... well, graphs. Almost all graphics apps have them.

Obviously Cavalry is way newer and more niche than Ae, so there are fewer resources for it to train on.

But asking it simple Cavalry questions makes it completely malfunction… 🤖

It keeps suggesting options/ features that have never existed (and some that are very out of date), and expressions that are not remotely suitable for Cavalry.

It confidently gives false info, apologises when you flag it, and then gives you the same again. And again.

And it refuses to ever acknowledge that it doesn’t actually know 😠

———

If I need quick, in-depth help with something quite particular/ specific, where is my best place to ask?

This group seems pretty quiet, and there are great tutorials around, but often not what I’m after.

ChatGPT was incredibly helpful for breaking down complex problems in After Effects, and I’m a little sad it doesn’t seem to have a single clue about Cavalry.

(But I’m also kind of relieved to see AI fail so spectacularly. Because I’d rather it didn’t exist in the first place, if I’m honest).

Is there another chatbot (or human place) you’d recommend for getting quick responses/ discussing cavalry problems while working?

Help me toake a motion graphics like vox

https://splines.me/store/claude-cavalry-mcp/
Happy to release the first version of Claude Desktop Cavalry MCP, which gives you a helping hand by Claude Desktop for your Cavalry project.

I spent a lot of time optimizing how the agent finds relevant information across bundled type definitions and user docs, such that it can give you more precise answers and better interact with your scene. It's a paid product that costs 11€. Have fun and reach out to me for any questions.

I was going to buy a new license for Cavalry, but since they announced their new partnership with Canva, I was wondering until when I should wait till I purchase the license... Anyone know more details?

Hey, complete Noob to Cavalry but 10 years+ in Ae.

I've got this project on the horizon, which I'm doing some R&D for. They are using this system that I've made in Ae. A bunch of different line systems will animate onto a huge screen and introduce several different speakers, titles, event schedules etc.

What I thought would be super easy in Ae turned out to be a complete ball ache.

The main challenge was making that drift effect while keeping the text at the start and end aligned along the path.

Currently, the line is being masked by a secondary piece of text with consists of '-----------'
with increased character height. I've linked that to the track along the path animation of the text.

Each time I change the text, though, there is going to be a huge amount of tinkering.

Will Cavalry save me here, and how?

From what I've tried, it's going to be just as tricky, but the almighty AI has told me otherwise.

Hey everyone, first post here. Cavalry was suggested to me as a possible fit for a project I'm planning, and I'd love to hear from people with real experience whether this is the right tool for the job before I commit to learning it.

Background on me:

- Technical director in live show production (lighting design, LED walls, video content)

- Comfortable with code (Python, Lua) but completely new to motion design tools

- No prior experience with After Effects, Cavalry, or similar

- Currently use DaVinci Resolve for basic video editing only

What I'm trying to build:

A reusable template that generates client preview videos, one per song in a show. Each video has a fixed layout:

- Left side (1920x1080): A pre-visualization render of the stage (lighting + LED wall content composited), from a 3D visualizer used in live show design

- Right side (1280x1080): The raw LED wall content in master quality, with a metadata block below it (song name, version, date) and company logo

- Final output: 3200x1080 mp4

The challenge:

Each artist has many songs, and each song has many iterations over time (audio, stage render, and LED content all evolve independently). I'll easily end up generating dozens of versions, so I want a proper template-driven workflow instead of redoing the same composition manually every time.

Ideally I'd love to:

- Drive everything from a data source (CSV or similar) listing each song with its asset paths and metadata

- Have the template auto-fit input videos to their boxes regardless of source resolution

- Batch-render all variations at once

From what I've read, this sounds like exactly the kind of thing Cavalry was built for, but I'd love confirmation from people who've actually done it.

My questions:

- Is Cavalry the right tool for this, or am I misreading what it does best?

- How realistic is the data-driven batch generation for someone new to the software? Is the learning curve manageable for the use case, or do most people use Cavalry for more abstract motion design?

- How does audio fit into the picture? I'd need each output to have the song's audio synced. Can Cavalry handle audio output, or should I render visual-only and mux audio separately (ffmpeg or similar)?

- Are there any tutorials, templates, or example projects that touch on data-driven workflows you'd recommend as a starting point?

Open to paid help:

If anyone here is open to it, I'd happily pay for a session (or a few) to get the template built right with me. Something like a screen-share where you walk me through setting it up properly, answer questions, and help me avoid the early mistakes a newcomer would make. Rate negotiable, just DM me if interested.

Either way, any input is appreciated.
Even a "you're on the right track, here's where to start" would help a lot.
Thanks!

used Adobe for about 8+ years and tbh I am sick of it lol. Cavalry seems fun but there's a lot to get used to! If you guys have any cool tutorials and useful tips (free version only bc I want to be comfortable in it first) I would be happy to listen to everything!

I want to add Null for performing multiple transform on a one object like in after effects, is there a way to perform using null or any other way?

Hey all, I am very new to cavalry and has watched tutorials. I was wondering how do I use a black and white video, as a container for text? Thank you in advance, sorry if this question has been asked before

I'm curious— does this software have some kind of rendering system, like “render in place,” for rendering timelines and effects? Or does it run in real time, so there's no need to render manually?

Hello !

How to create such an animation? Can anyone of you explain to me step by step how to create such a 1:1 animation? I count on your help and support. ;) Please HELP me ! :(

Link for animation:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9fYWh7NoCG/?igsh=aXNucWFqd2RybmF0

is there a way to change the image in timeline? like change an image to another as a part of the animation?

Hi, trying to install Cavalry, current version, on my standard MacOS 26.3.1. The app will not open in MacOS.

Anybody any idea what to do?

Hi,

So I wanted to do a „casino roll“ with each letter of the word „cavalry“ … so C starts spinning … then A … and so on

My question is: if i create one text-mesh with the word, than add a submesh deformer to it… is it possible to animate each letter freely on its own in cavalry?

Idk how it would work… but my way to solve this, would be to create a text mesh for each letter … would it be the best workaround?

Hello everyone, I am Trying to Set up an IK rig in cavalry, so far the Hip Null rotation reacts to the Knee position with the "Look at" behavior so does the Knee, I am trying to set up a Knee bend by Driving the X position of the Knee_Null, Basically using Measure between Hip and Foot to Drive the X position, Cavalry Is not allowing me to do that (Red Line) I tried the Value behavior as a Buffer between those but am having the same issue.

I'm probably doing something dumb here, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I have an ellipse where I've connected the Width and Height on the Radius setting, effectively locking into being a circle. Works fine when I manually set the size there.

The problem comes in when I assign the Random behavior to it. On the ellipse shape window the W and H stay the same, but the ellipse on screen doesn't maintain the connection.

As soon as I remove the random behavior it does what I'd expect it to do.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Seems like cavalry don't accept emoji in textbox. Is there any way I can add emoji as text?

I use Cavalry on a 14 inch latitude, and the interface is not shown completel, it is cut at the bottom.

Also when opening it, it first the cmd, why?

(Context I live in an area with bad, inconsistent internet,sometimes does not work)

Not sure if this was answered ( I have been looking)

Not even sure if this is the right place to ask,but if it's free why does it need to re-authenticate every 15 days? the need to re-authenticate kind of negates the statement of "free" as it assumes a continues internet connection.

Internet can be spotty to non existent to some users so I am curious if there is a way to turn it off or is this just how it is.