Hi!

I am mainly coming from a cinema 4d motion graphics background.

In C4D you can clone objects on to a mesh, add dynamics and tell them to collide with each other BUT also stick to where the Cloner puts them, even if the underlying mesh is animated. So the clones will move with the animation and collide with each other.

Now I am trying to achieve the same effect inside of Houdini.
I have them copied onto my animation but no idea how to “insert” them into a DOP Network and still have the animation drive them.

How would this be accomplished?

Constraint network.
Have a look at Matt's solution here:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/52100/ [www.sidefx.com]

Also replicated in the attached scene.
Good luck!