CHARACTER INTERACTION HOW TO's  I can't find any help on how to make two or more characters physically interact.  Silent YouTube vids with jittery clicks on tiiiiiny icons drive me nuts.  Few people are good instructors who plan carefully and convey clearly.  Humans kiss, hand each other bottles, take off each other's shoes, high five, walk holding hands, spoon feed, lift babies into bed, shake hands, hug, undress another, breastfeed, and on and on and on but iClone doesn't appear strong in animating this kind of stuff except for combat in droves for hormonal teens. Forum, Google, and YouTube aren't helpful in locating instruction for accomplishing these animation tasks.  Help if you can.  Thanx!

Well. you've certainly outlined one of the hardest things in any animation, 2D or 3D.  There are no (AFAIK) "automagic" ways of accomplishing this.

But... first and foremost you need to become an experienced animator.  Of just ONE person.  Like with anything else, you need to understand ALL the fundamentals before you can do more advanced stuff.  So, like you wouldn't expect a person to be able to compete in a marathon unless they knew how to walk first, you need to learn how to walk, then run, then you *may* be able to do those more advanced things.  

And... it will take time.  For you to get to be experienced at animation I would suggest it would take at least three months, if not longer (that's assuming you can devote at least three or four hours a day to the task -- with lesser time per day it will take more days).  By the time you understand all of that, know how to animate a character pick up a spoon and feed themselves, and can do it with ease and grace, THEN you can start having them interact with another.  And THAT will take another three months (or more).

As long as you have the time (and the patience) you can do all this.  But there is no "one stop course" that will tell you all.  Start at the beginning and soon you'll be teaching US.

(Also, note that most such interactions are "faked" to a large degree -- just like with someone feeding themselves, you don't see all the details but just see bodies in front of each other with movements that make you think things are happening, even if the actual avatars are feet away from each other).

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Since soooo few iClone animations I see exhibit this level of mastery, I'd conclude the overall iClone community animation skill level is low?  Even using iClone.

I guess it would depend on your sample size and what you are using in comparison.  For example, I doubt whether you'd find this prevalent in the Daz, Maya, Blender, Poser, Max communities either.  I don't have the time for an exhaustive study but even in movies made by Pixar you see a whole lot of "faking" going on.

Perhaps if you'd point us to a homemade (as opposed to professional) video showing what you mean we could be more specific.  In general, "communities" are composed of folks who are learning the software (the pros seldom visit such or, if they do, don't have time and/or permission to post their work). 

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Alienware Aurora R16, Win 11, i9-149000KF, 3.20GHz CPU, 64GB RAM, RTX 4090 (24GB), Samsung 870 Pro 8TB, Gen3 MVNe M-2 SSD, 4TBx2, 39" Alienware Widescreen Monitor
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I am always terribly annoyed with these blank statements that are not based on anything. It is not even worth discussing.

And I feel not inclined to offer any help or support, which you are obviously after.

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@jsinger

Your request is a paradox for me. You joined the forum 12 years ago , and you used Iclone since the 4th version without knowing how to animate "basic" behaviors...
and you said that Iclone community level of animation is low 
I understand that animating with keyframes is not your strong point , so I suggest to invest in some mocap suit doing mocap of your need. I did this and it's a very
good way to achieve my needs 

Do me a favor and upload a video of a character turning their head first. Start with this task first.

iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.

well i do this all the time in my Projects and it is hard depending on the subject. The acting also plays a factor as well. I have been doing videos of a woman interacting with  a robot. It took some time to do. I used motionbuilder to block out what i wanted then exported back to iclone and started sampling the parts of the animation and using the curve editor.  It is time consuming working like i do but i get what i want . I do videos on this subject I would like to post the videos i have done in the four board But me posting content from my youtube channel is banned from this forum board. Talk to Peter about that. But I will put together a video tutorial how to break down a scene with two characters interacting. Here is a simple fight scene I have done I have many videos starting from scratch of how i was able to get the two character to react and fight one another. Like i said Peter banned me from making any post from my main youtube channel. But i can Send you a pm to all the videos i made on this project. 
This video in on my Iclone friendly channel but all the work i did on this scene is on my main channel.
Enjoy!

Iclone is hard to use but so are ALL 3d animation softwares don’t give up!

It’s very difficult to make people interact - have you used 3dsmax and maya etc? It’s very difficult and that’s why character-based 3D animation is a unique skill set. And also why motion capture is so popular as a starting point!

There’s no “magic button” in Iclone to make characters interact, is that what you’re looking for? You have to painstakingly make it happen, using all of its tools. Just like you have to in other 3D apps.

Mostly it’s about mastering keyframe animation - posing characters and then moving the pose. Bit by bit. That’s the core of all animation.

The alternative to keyframes in Iclone is combining premade motion clips. Have you used them much? They take skill too, but you can “mix and match” motion clips (even masking out areas of the body you don’t want animations to apply to etc) in all sorts of ways. If you go down that route, I’d suggest learning about motion roots etc.

The absolute best best best training there currently is is the series “Iclone fundamentals” that Reallusion sells. It’s very very slow - you have to be patient with the guy as it takes forever for him to say things as he’s british lol - but it has character interaction!!!!!

It had a long section about characters interacting in an outside beer garden. Chatting and stuff. Not touching tho haha if that’s what you need. But it covers all the stuff you need to know.

Does that help?!

Also please don’t be flippant about the Iclone stuff you see out there in the world, cause people have spent a long time trying to make stuff. Even if it’s not “perfect” it doesn’t help the community to have people say it’s crap.

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virtualfilmer.com | youtube

Also, I’d add that the biggest issue all software training on the internet has is that experts don’t visit the forums and making training once they are experts lol.

I know even for me, I’m a tv editor for prime time broadcast tv in LA. Have I made tutorials on how to do it? No. I’m part of the (overall) problem! )

Plus, mike made a good point - lots of the best Iclone stuff is embargoed by NDAs etc. People use it for previz, but they aren’t allowed to show you that stuff! Unless the studio releases it etc. and also, if it’s above a certain $$$ level they almost certainly used motion builder not Iclone (google previz for all the pro video examples).

(Some of us on here are 3dsmax / motion builder people too, but don’t want to spend that kind of $$$ for our own passion projects)

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virtualfilmer.com | youtube