Color images, from the past before color photography (especially those 19th century Russian RGB color-photos that have recently been recomposited), has the effect of making me more aware of the subjects as people I could probably relate to naturally if I had met them face-to-face, instead of just being “old-timey.”
The real killer app is automatically colorizing line drawings. I’ve used some software-assisted cel animation coloring software which was just basic (fill originating in the same clicked x-y coordinate), but saved a ton of time not having to color every frame. I can imagine Disney or some Japanese or Korean outfit hard at work adapting this software to do allow just one guy or gal to color ALL the output of a feature-length film. It just might bring 2D cel-animation costs down to 3D CG character-animation and cause another cel-animation renaissance.
