Im actually kind of in the same boat as you. I got my foot in the door as an animator, and have taken a liking to rigging, so ive been doing more and more at work, but im more of a generalist. Ive been looking into what i need to get a job as a full time rigger somewhere. Definitely learn python, not mel. Mel is good to…
most studios that I know of use Motion Builder, which comes with it's own rig basically. don't put all your talent points into rigging and making cute nurb circles in maya, put a couple into Python scripting as well, so that you can expand on for example motion builder rigs and make plugins for animators, like exporters…