Licensing

Licence Types

Cavalry offers 2 types of licence via the website:

• Starter - Requires no payment or credit card details to use.
• Professional - A paid version available as an annual subscription which includes additional features.

See the website for information on Team and Education licenses.

The Enterprise licence offers headless rendering via the CLI.

Starter

The Starter licence is intended for learning or evaluation but can also be used for commercial purposes. It has no expiry so can be used for as long as you like and it's feature packed bar a few exceptions:

• Renders and exports are restricted to 1920 x 1080px. You can work in a Composition of any size but any output will be resized to a maximum of either of those dimensions.
• Certain features are not available (see below).

Professional

The Professional licence increases the render resolution to a maximum of 15360 × 8640px and includes access to the following features:

Try Pro

Most of the Professional features can be evaluated via the Try Pro button at the top of the UI. When signed in with a Starter licence, loading a Try Pro example will enable Restricted Mode which prevents saving or rendering. Removing the Professional feature(s) or signing in with a Professional licence will disable Restricted Mode.

The button is labelled Pro Features when signed in with a Professional licence as these scenes are useful as demo scenes.

2.5D

• Camera - Use a camera to create a 2.5D environment.

Automation

• Dynamic Rendering - Automate rendering multiple versions of compositions with ease.
• Google Sheet Asset - Import data to drive animations via Google Sheets.
• Image Smart Folder - Import a folder containing image, video or image sequence assets which can then be referenced via external data.
• Audio Smart Folder - Import a folder containing audio assets which can then be referenced via external data.

Shapes

• Scheduling Group - Procedurally position child layers in time.
• Layout Groups - Stack Shapes into layouts.
• Extrude - Extrude Shapes to give the appearance of depth.
• Timeline Counter - Use Time Markers or Pacing Markers to accumulate or trigger a value over time.
• Accumulator - Create 'stacks' of Shapes or custom layouts.
• Component - Collect Layers and promote attributes to create a simplified, custom container.
• Chop Path - Chop a Shape into several slices.
• Segment Path - Segment Paths into smaller sections to create a sub-mesh.
• Shortest Path - Generates Paths by finding the shortest path between a start and end position via a Distribution of Points.
• Isolines Shape - Convert images or Shape Layers into Contours.

Behaviours

• Bend Deformer - Deform Shapes by bending them around the circumference of a circle.
• Squash and Stretch Deformer - Squash and stretch Shapes with options to add bulge and preserve a Shape's area.
• Knot Deformer - Add gaps to Paths where a Contour self-intersects.
• Contours to Sub-Meshes - Convert Path Contours within Shapes into Sub-Meshes.

Workflow

• Shortcut Manager - Customise the hotkeys used to run commands.
• Control Centre - Promote the most important attributes of your Compositions for easy access — great for rigging and sharing complex scenes with colleagues or clients.
• Pre-Comp Overrides - Override attributes contained within Compositions to create templates.

Rendering

• Audio Export - Include audio when rendering to .mp4, .webm and .mov or render audio only to .acc.
• Lottie Export - Export animations to the web friendly Lottie (.json) format.
• Background Rendering - Hand off rendering to continue working in parallel.

Simulation

• Forge Dynamics - A fully featured rigid body dynamics system.

  • Forge Dynamics Shape - The 'core' of a Forge Dynamics system.
  • Collision Events
    • Body Setting Collision Event - Change the Density/ Friction/ Bounce etc of Shapes when they collide.
    • Color Collision Event - Change the Color of Shapes when they collide.
    • Impulse Collision Event - Add additional forces to Shapes when they collide.
    • Sticky Collision Event - Stick Shapes to each other when they collide.
    • Visibility Collision Event - Affect the Visibility of Shapes when they collide.
  • Constraints
    • Bridge Constraint - Chain Shapes together.
    • Distance Constraint - Constrain Shapes to their original positions.
    • Pin Constraint - Fix Shapes to their position.
  • Fields
    • Attractor Field - Pull or push Shapes towards or away from a target.
    • Direction Field - Create a directional force to push Shapes along.
    • Drag Field - Apply a force counter to the Shapes' positional and rotational velocities.

• Value Solver + Value2 Solver - Store the values from previous frames in order to accumulate and/or fade them.

JavaScript

• Scripting APIs - Use JavaScript to access layers and data within a Scene so that it's possible to write scripts that perform custom workflows.
• JavaScript Utility - Use JavaScript expressions to drive other Layers.
• JavaScript Shape - Create Shapes via JavaScript expressions.
• JavaScript Deformer - Create Deformers via JavaScript expressions.
• JavaScript Editor - Write JavaScript scripts which can access the Scripting APIs to create, connect and affect Layers. Note - while the JavaScript Editor is available in the Starter licence, it's only possible to run scripts with the Professional licence.
• Setup/Pre/Post-Render Scripts.

Filters and Shaders

• Slit Scan Filter - Create an animated fly-through effect.
• Pixel Sorting Filter - Reorder a Layer's pixels by sorting them according to various attributes such as brightness.
• Scrape Filter - Stretch pixels from a line to create a smeared effect.
• Scan Lines Filter - Mimic the effect of a CRT monitor.
• Background Blur Filter - Blur the areas of a Shape that sit within another Shape.
• Voronoi Shader - Generate a cellular pattern by calculating the distances between a lattice of points.
• Glow Filter - Add a glow effect to a Shape with controls for the RGB channels.

General

• Travel Deformer - Reposition the start points for all Contours within a Path.
• Radius Utility - Generate the radius for a circle which encompasses several Shapes.
• Stroke Duplicator - Add complex combinations of Strokes to Shapes.
• Multiple Viewports - Launch multiple Viewport windows to preview several Compositions.

Experimental Features

All Experimental Features - Ensure Show Experimental Features is checked in Preferences for access to these features.

• Particles - Simulate complex physically-based effects like smoke, rain or dust.
  • Particle Shape - The 'core' of a particle system.
  • Emitters - Defines where Particles appear from and how many are added to the Composition:
    • Distribution Emitter
    • JavaScript Emitter
    • Particle Emitter
  • Modifiers - Fields which can be used to change and influence a Particle's Attributes.
    • Data Modifier
    • Flow Field Modifier
    • Force Modifier
    • Goal Modifier
    • Image Modifier
    • JavaScript Modifier
    • Magnetic Modifier
    • Path Modifier
    • Speed Modifier
    • Turbulence Modifier
    • Visual Modifier
    • Vortex Modifier

See the pricing page for more information.

Upgrade

Upgrade to a Professional licence at cavalry.scenegroup.co

Enterprise

The Enterprise licence includes everything in the Professional licence plus the following feature:

• CLI - The Command Line Interface enables various tasks without the need to launch Cavalry itself. Some features are available in the Starter and Professional version but the render and list commands plus the --prompt argument are Enterprise only features.

Compatibility

Starter and Professional users can share files but, where a file contains Professional features, a Starter will be switched into a 'restricted' mode which prevents saving or rendering. This is signalled by the the word 'Restricted' appearing in the application's title bar and overlaid in the Viewport.

Authentication

An internet connection is required to authenticate your licence the first time you open Cavalry.

It's possible to use Cavalry offline but you will be required to periodically authenticate online to maintain access.

Information about your licence can be found in the About Window.

• Email: - The user currently signed in.
• Licence Class: - The type of licence in use:
  • Starter - You are signed in with a Free licence.
  • Professional - You are signed in with a Professional licence.
• Licence Status: - The status of the licence:
  • Active - The licence is active.
  • Offline - When offline you will find an indication of how many days you have left until you are required to re-authenticate.
  • Suspended - Indicates a problem with payment along with an indication of how many days you have left to resolve the problem. Please visit account.scenegroup.co to resolve the issue or contact support@scenegroup.co.
  • Expired - Your licence is no longer valid. You will need to sign up for another Starter or Professional licence via cavalry.scenegroup.co.

Manage a Subscription

Sign in to your account and use the Manage Subscription button to change payment details or cancel your subscription.

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If you cancel a Professional subscription your licence will auto downgrade to a Starter licence at the end of the billing cycle. You will still be able to open any old files but you will not be able to save or render from any scenes that contain Professional features. Upgrading via the website again will re-enable this functionality.