LEGO Digital Designer to LDraw

[Owen Dive]

Did anyone continue pioneering LDraw animations?

Depends on animation style you want... For animation of Technic models, SR3Dbuilder is very interesting. And Roland is actively working to add animation to LDCad.

LD4DStudio, also by Roland, specialises in animations, though it is not an editor, so you'll have to have your models already.