This is a follow up to my previous tutorial about how text layers work inside Cavalry. I would recommend you watch it, as it will give you a “full” picture on how text and vector shapes work in Cavalry. And, make sure to read the following pages on Cavalry’s Docs:

• Shapes
• Sub-Mesh

Above links will give you the latest reference, on how Cavalry “sees” meshes and how you can modify them. If you want to be precise in your sub-mesh selections, make sure you get yourself familiar with Index Context concept. This allows us to assign effects of behaviours, colours and shaders to specific parts of the design via Sub-Mesh. This precision will let you build more complex and scalable systems, easily.

One of the examples I have shown in the tutorial is how Mesh Explorer see parenting of shapes inside Duplicator vs Duplicator inside Duplicator.

You can clearly see the difference in how each Mesh is seen by Cavalry. When you parent shapes to each other and use them in a Duplicator vs using 2x Duplicators, the difference is clear:

• Parented shapes show up in a Mesh Explorer, the same way they are parented on a timeline
• Shapes inside Duplicator, inside another Duplicator will have “groups / folders” for each level
  • This shows that every time you use Duplicator, you are creating “level” just by using a Duplicator

There is no right or wrong way of doing this. Personally, I prefer to use multiple Duplicators, rather than parenting. Multiple Duplicators allow for more control – it is much easier to use Index Context to affect only shapes you need.

When you use parenting inside Duplicator, any change to parent shape will affect children shapes as well. This means you would need to use another behaviours or array to “correct” effect of the first behaviour layer. It will quickly get really confusing and hard to update at scale.