Mixed Parts, New Community Hub For Animators, Launches

Mixed Parts, a news and discussion community geared specifically to animation artists, has launched an invite-only beta.

In an introductory letter, Mixed Parts founder Dan Savage, a director and animator in New York City, emphasized that no type of animation artist or industry topic is off-limits in the community:

Animation is an umbrella, it’s a collaborative art. It’s not just cartoons and commercials. It’s everything from a single drawing to a virtual world. It’s video games and user interfaces. It’s graphic design, illustration, and art. We love it all, and we welcome it all…We plan to mix people working in motion, commercial, film, TV, indie, design, illustration, interactive, and more. We want to bring all the parts together.

Savage also explained that Mixed Parts, unlike many social platforms that devolve into popularity contests, won’t allow users to follow each other. The discussions are what’s important, and users vote on posts, not the people posting.

While Mixed Parts plans to remain invite-only in its early stages, the discussions are available for everyone to read. If you want a taste of this site’s potential value to the animation community, here’s a fantastic discussion about strategies for artists to promote their work in the media. In all my years on other social platforms, I don’t think I’ve ever run across a public discussion on this specific topic with such useful and informed advice.