An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig for character development, configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. Hierarchical representation of puppets includes groups of functions related in a hierarchy according to character specialization for creating the animated rig are derived using base functions of a core component node. The hierarchical nodes may include an archetype node, at least one appendage node, and at least one feature node. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the functions from the core component node, may be shared to generate different animation rigs for a variety of characters. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the component node functions, may be reused to build similar appendages of a same animation rig.