Stretchy Arm Skeleton
This tutorials covers building a hi-res multi joint skeleton which is driven by a simple IK skeleton, and how to make it stretchable. You will need basic understanding of some rigging tools and Maya in general

Curve Gizmo, Using A Nurbs Curve for Procedural Animation
CurveGizmo is basically a paramatrical third degree nurbs curve, with custom magnitude and speed channels, and it outputs nurbs curve`s position as a floating point value at any sampled time.