Colour and light are what set great from good animated films and tv shows. Making sure all the aspects of a scene fit together correctly, to create the atmosphere needed in your story.

The industry standard for these aspects of animation post production is Adobe After Effects. I found this video very helpful in learning more about how compositing artists take the animation with flat colours and make them work within a scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4axtpnZps&t=766s: Industry Roles Animation: Compositing and Lighting Artists in Post-Production

A series which does most of its colour and light work in post production is the internet animated series “Helluva Boss” by Spindlehorse studios. Below you can see how the animation exported with flat colours. Of course, the red-skinned imp characters are tinted a little pink, but they don’t look like they fit in with the scene. They look copy pasted on the background. In contract, the right hand side has had lighting effects and colour changes, and works so much stronger.

The main difference you can see is in the silhouettes. Before post-production they are flat and grey. They make the shot look confusing. Characters in the foreground get lost in this visual mess. Compositing and VFX artist for the show Brenna Coleman fixed these issues by re-colouring the shadows. By creating a mask for them, their colour could be changed to purple. They blend into the background more, allowing foreground characters to pop. A backlight effect has also been added matching the lighting in the background.

From my own practice with the short film for Unit 2, I can say that compositing is a lot of fun. It’s definitely not easy, there are a lot of confusing things in After Effects which can become traps. However, it is a lot less time consuming and repetitive than the animation part itself. Plus it can feel amazing to be that cherry on the top which makes an animation go from amateur to professional looking.