I would like to go further into rigging my characters and gain a solid MEL education mostly for animation (so I can build my own animation tools to enhance the character setup) on a production level. I want these tools to be easily re-usable.

Basically, I am looking to find my own little niche. Meanwhile, make rigs suitable for film quality animation but also quick setup and easily usable/flexible animation controls.

Anyone here been inspired by a rig setup? animation tool(MEL script)? If so who was it and how did you learn about it?

It was suggested to me that Blue Sky and WETA TD's build amazing character rigs. I personally find experimenting with character setups can be a lot of fun. I feel MEL scripting may be the direction I should turn towards next. Start building my own in-house tools to speed up my workflow and add enhancements. Problem is there is no samples of MEL on the film production level. Yet in-house tools are built and used often in the film industry. If I am not mistaken WETA's Massive was built using MEL.

One idea I have for a rig is creating a power center slider to follow up and down the spine. Make posing tasks easier during blocking stages for animators. Any and all suggestions/tips are welcome to join in this discussion.