I *suspect* if there is *any* scaling in After Effects you will get a bit of blur. But you will also get some if a scaling in CH too. Having said that, the Photoshop file looks fine, so I am sure you can get it better. I don't have a magic solution, just an explanation of what is going on (which might be obvious sorry).
When you drop a Photoshop file into AE, you have the resolution of Photoshop and the resolution of AE. You might scale it a bit. Photoshop is a pixel format (not a vector format like Illustrator), so it has to scale pixels. Each time you scale, you lose a little accuracy. E.g. something 100 pixels high scaled to be 50 pixels high on the screen will take 4 pixels (2 across x 2 down) and mush it into one pixel. If you go from 100 to 29% things get a lot more murky - you take a bunch of pixels around the final point, average them (?), then work out the final color you want. There are different algorithms for doing this - pick one original pixel, average those near the pixel, etc. The different algorithms during scaling have different side effects. Antialiasing comes in as well, trying to soften the edge of jaggies. So basically the algorithms used by software can mess with the image in different ways.
Back to Photoshop into AE, there is one scale of the image that will have happened.
When Photoshop into CH into AE, the image is scaled into the CH video, then the result is scaled again into AE. So if it is not 100% scaling, you introduce a bit of distortion for each extra level of scaling and processing you do.
Scaling images larger is generally bad - one pixel getting turned into 4 can look ugly (chunky), which is where anti-aliasing algorithms can try to soften the edge to guess there was a line before, so lets soften the edge to look line a line in the result.
Scaling images smaller can work badly with very thin lines (like the black outline of the puppet).
The best advice I have is use a larger resolution puppet (but not crazy large as it gets slower to process), avoid scaling down too much in CH to keep as much resolution as possible, then try to scale down in AE rather than scale up. Ideally, use 100% scaling (ie, no scaling) in AE to avoid any distortion there. Do all scaling in CH.
But its just hard. I use Illustrator (with vector graphics) for my artwork to reduce the problem. I then do all scene composition in CH (not AE) to also avoid such distortions with an extra layer of processing. I only use Prem Pro to join videos, not render them or compose scenes with character scaling. I think that gives the best possible results (but you have less tools available). I use multiple short scenes, render them individually, join together with Prem Pro/AE. When I need the extra power, I do a single scene in AE etc, render that, then join with all the other video clips using Prem Pro.
Sorry if that was a bit long - just sharing how I address the issue.
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