What features does Cavalry offer for 2D animation and motion design?

Cavalry is a free 2D animation and motion graphics application for macOS and Windows whose distinguishing features are real-time rendering, procedural systems, and data-driven animation. It is aimed at individual animators and motion designers who want professional-grade tools without a paid license, and at teams that need centralized access through a Canva Enterprise or Canva Education account. The features below are the ones the product itself highlights; whether they replace your current tool depends on how much you rely on real-time iteration and spreadsheet-driven work.

Real-time rendering and viewport

Cavalry renders at full speed in real time, so the viewport shows the result as you work rather than after a preview render. The stated benefit is no waiting and no preview lag — you adjust a value and see the effect immediately.

This matters most for:

• Iterating on timing and easing, where slow previews break your rhythm
• Scenes with many layers or procedural systems, where a cached preview would go stale
• Data-driven sequences, where you need to see how imported values actually land

Procedural systems: change once, ripple everywhere

The core design idea is that a single value drives an entire system. Adjust one parameter and connected elements respond together, instead of you editing each object by hand.

The feature set that supports this includes:

Because these are procedural, changing the source updates every instance — the "change it once, watch it ripple" behavior.

Data-driven animation

Cavalry can connect to a spreadsheet and animate at scale. Instead of keyframing each item, you import data and let the values drive the animation. This is the feature to check first if your work involves charts, counters, lists, or any motion that follows real numbers.

Related to this, Data Import and Lottie Export are both listed as supported features, so data-driven scenes can be exported in the Lottie format for web and app use.

Design and animation toolset

The remaining features cover day-to-day motion design work:

• Color Palettes — manage and reuse color sets
• Magic Easing — easing presets or assisted easing for smoother motion
• Text Animation — animate type directly
• Lottie Export — output to the Lottie format

Platform and access conditions

• Cavalry runs natively on macOS and Windows, optimized for both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
• It is only available for Mac or Windows — the site notes that mobile devices cannot run it, though you can still download from a mobile device.
• Individuals get the full feature set free, with no restrictions or payment described.
• A Canva account is required to use Cavalry, since it is now offered by Canva.
• SSO access for organizations is available through a Canva Enterprise or Canva Education account.
• Existing license holders retain access to their legacy Scene Group version, but the latest features require the current setup.

How to decide if these features fit your work

Choose Cavalry if your priority is fast iteration on procedural or data-driven motion and you work on Mac or Windows. The real-time viewport and single-value ripple behavior are the features most likely to change how you work day to day.

Look elsewhere if you need to run on a mobile or Linux device, or if you cannot use a Canva account. If you are evaluating it against another tool, compare on the same three axes: preview speed, whether systems are procedural or manual, and whether data import and Lottie export exist in the other tool.

To try it, download the Mac or Windows build, then work through the official Getting Started, Features, and Tips and Tricks series, plus the downloadable example files, to see the procedural and data features in practice.