What’s new in Cavalry 2.0?
Cavalry 2.0 is here with a raft of new features and improvements. 🙌
We’ve picked out some of our favourite additions here including Cameras, Pre-Comp Overrides and Components but check out the release notes for a full list of all the amazing updates.
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Download the installers via your account.
Cameras/2.5D
Cavalry now supports cameras!
Shapes can now move in a third dimension when you add a Camera to a Composition. The Freeform and Look At Cameras provide a way to create a 2.5D environment meaning movements like parallax, tracking and zoom are now easy to achieve.
Pre-Comp Overrides
Pre-Comp Overrides are a very easy way to create variations of a main template Composition. By promoting attributes from a Composition’s Layers, they can then be accessed and overridden when that Composition is used as a Pre-Comp within another Composition.
Components
Components are Shapes that contain a collection of other Layers. Attributes from those Layers can be promoted to the Component in order to create a simplified, custom user interface. By hiding much of the complexity, ready made ‘canned effects’ can then be easily shared and reused.
Attributes from those Layers can be promoted to the Component in order to create a simplified, custom user interface.
Simply drag and drop the important Attributes onto the Component to make them accessible outside of the ‘edit mode’. In the example below, the full rig includes eight layers but can be collapsed to just one while retaining quick access to the string, colour and bevel amount.
Auto-Animate
Add a wide variety of animations to Shapes with only a few keyframes using the new Auto-Animate Behaviour. This an incredibly quick way to intuitively create and share animations. Try some of the examples via the Create > Demo Scenes > Text menu to see how Auto-Animate can be used to easily create complex Text transitions.
Add a variety of animations to Shapes with only a few keyframes using the new Auto-Animate Behaviour.
JavaScript Improvements
Our popular JavaScript APIs have had over 100 new features added meaning it’s even easier to create custom workflows and tools for your projects. These updates are also available to the JavaScript Layers opening up more ‘creative coding’ opportunities. Check out the examples in the Create > Demo Scenes > JavaScript menu for inspiration.
Performance Improvements
Cavalry 2.0 includes several everyday optimisations to speed up your workflow.
Speed improvements will be dependent on the Scene but on average you can expect to see ~200% increase in playback speed. Performance improvements will be most noticeable in complex scenes where we have observed speed improvements of up to ~600% . Simple Scenes should see at least a 10% improvement in playback performance.
Performance improvements will be most noticeable in complex scenes where we have observed speed improvements of up to ~600% .
Selecting large numbers of Layers is now ~100x faster and opening large Scenes is now also much faster. In our tests, a 2000 Layer Scene load time is now ~22x faster.
Tapered Strokes
New options have been added to enable a tapered stroke along a Shape to add further interest to graphic elements.
Background Rendering
It’s rare to find yourself waiting too long for a render to complete in Cavalry but it’s now also possible to send rendering to a second process so you are not prevented from continuing to work during those longer renders. Just open the Render Manager and check the Background Rendering option before hitting the Render button.
Wave Deformer
The Wave Deformer can be used to create looping wave distortions along open and closed Paths with options for Sine, Square, Sawtooth and Triangular waves.
It’s extremely easy to use and perfect for creating clean and even deformations for artwork and patterns.
Particles
A HUGE addition to the ‘Experimental’ features is a new particle system which includes several Emitters and Modifiers enabling you to craft a wide range of simulations.
There’s also a new Particle Distribution which can be used to attach geometry to each Particle or, for example, to use a Particle Shape as the input to a Connect Shape (or any Layer that uses a Distribution).
Not forgetting Track Mattes, Increment and Save, Motion Paths, Segment Path, Background Blur Filter, Sorting in the Assets Window, missing font detection, Attribute Editor improvements and much, much more.
Check out the release notes for all the updates and improvements.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the beta. You’re feedback was absolutely invaluable along the way to this release. We salute you. ❤️
