Using .reduce() is actually pretty nice for this:
// current object----| |----current key
// v v
arr.reduce(function(obj, key) {
return obj == null ? obj : obj[key];
}, window.mesh);
// ^
// |-- initial object
Your attempt to use .reduce() needed to pass a function that manages the "accumulation".
Here, as long as the previous obj wasn't null or undefined, it'll return the key of the current obj, which becomes the next obj.
Then since you need to assign a value, you'd actually want to get the value of the second to last key.
var o = arr.slice(0,-1).reduce(function(obj, key) {
return obj == null ? obj : obj[key];
}, window.mesh);
And then check its existence and use the last item in arr to do the assignment.
o && o[arr.pop()] = 12.5;
All of this can be abstracted away into a function that does one or the other based on how many arguments were passed.
function setFromArray(obj, arr, val) {
var keys = arguments.length < 3 ? arr.slice() : arr.slice(0, -1);
var o = keys.slice(0,-1).reduce(function(obj, key) {
return obj == null ? obj : obj[key];
}, window.mesh);
if (arguments.length < 3)
return o;
else
o && o[keys.pop()];
}