How can I synchronize Two Mecanim Animations?

Assume I had two characters in a cut scene that interacted with each other. Maybe one grabs the other’s hand and pulls him up a ledge or maybe they’re fighting each other.

A Mecanim animation controller (fsm) is for one character only, right?
So what’s the best way to achieve synchronized animation?

With my current understanding, I think I’d have to create matching animation clips in both characters (eg. “Hero_PullUp”, “Victim_BePulledUp”), add a Mecanim transition from “Any State” to these animation clips in both animation controllers (so that the state machine doesn’t need to be navigated when starting the animation, risking offsets), add some trigger parameter and then in my script access both characters and set the trigger parameter in the same frame.

Am I on the right track and if no, how is it done correctly?

The way you described is pretty much the way I would go about it. I would also use Animator.MatchTarget on both character’s hands, using the same transform property on both so that the characters line up correctly.

Or you could use Animator.SetIKPosition to move just the hands into position rather than the whole character model.