Animation rigs haven't changed much over the years, especially if compared with the other tasks of a 3D pipeline. There's no lack of significant research though, so what is helding rigs back?
Blender offers the opportunity to rethink how we approach characters: in this talk, Paolo Acampora walks through the making of a modern animation system.
Paolo Acampora is a programmer and technical director for animation, visual effects, and real time computer graphics. He is a long-time blender user and contributor. He works with studios to streamline their pipelines and shares his tools with the community.