Systems and methods for generating recommendations for animations to apply to animate 3D characters in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. One embodiment includes an animation server and a database containing metadata describing a plurality of animations and the compatibility of ordered pairs of the described animations. In addition, the animation server is configured to receive requests for animation recommendations identifying a first animation, generate a recommendation of at least one animation described in the database based upon the first animation, receive a selection of an animation described in the database, and concatenate at least the first animation and the selected animation.