[Interview] Bringing Color and Light to “KPop Demon Hunters”: An Artist’s Creative Journey
2025-09-15“KPop Demon Hunters” has emerged as one of the biggest animated hits of 2025, dominating screens worldwide. Now the most-watched title on Netflix, the film captivates audiences not only with its compelling story and infectious soundtrack but also with its stunning visuals.
Artist Tiffany Pham was one of the individuals who brought color and light to the world of “KPop Demon Hunters” in various scenes, particularly in the MV “Golden” by the girl group HUNTR/X.
In an email interview conducted between August 27 and September 6, she shared insights into her creative process for the animated film. Besides, she expressed her excitement about collaborating with the talented visual team.
Tiffany is a Vietnamese-American artist based in California, USA. She has been working as a visual development artist in feature and series animation at major studios such as Sony Pictures Animation, Wild Canary Animation, DreamWorks, Epipheo Films, and Kuku Studios. Some of the animation projects she has worked on include “Ariel: The Little Mermaid,” “Light of the World,” and “In Your Dreams.”
As for her journey to “KPop Demon Hunters,” she was introduced late in the production process by Art Director Wendell Dalit and Production Designer Dave Bleich to assist with color, lighting, and visual development work.
For most of her work, inspiration and references were already prepared. Dave Bleich would compile these gorgeous mood/beat boards based on Helen Chen’s color scripts, giving the artists a better understanding of the colors, moods, and lighting directions they aim for. They also looked at a lot of editorial lighting, fashion photography, and magical girl references in the creative process.
In her approach to using color and light to convey emotions in the film, she said:
“Color and light are powerful storytelling tools that can be used to enhance the emotional journey for the audience. The use of color and light helps build toward key story moments and create emotional statements; they work together to create mood and tone. All decisions made on a film are in service to the narrative.
When getting kicked off on a sequence, the Production Designer and Art Director will communicate the emotional beats and goals of the assignment. With their feedback and guidance, each round of review and iteration helps push the work in the right direction. When working on a sequence, I aim to be intentional about the choices I make to ensure that they support the story and the production designer and directors’ vision.
I’m thinking about the emotional beat, story point, and how the audience will feel. I also think about where I can push for contrast or accents in order to lead the viewer’s eye to the focal area. Color associations and relationships can also be established, and depending on what the story calls for, these colors may be reserved or amplified for emotional impact.”
Working on HUNTR/X’s “Golden” music video was one of the most memorable assignments she got to be a part of. She collaborated closely with Moises Gomez, who was another visual development artist on the team, to create a collection of paintings to plan out the music video. Under the guidance and leadership of Dave Belich and Wendell Dalit, they all worked together to explore and experiment with different lighting setups for what the scene could look like.
“We started this assignment by listening and dissecting the lyrics to understand the emotional journey that’s reflected in the song. We played around with various types of contrast to explore how we could visually convey the emotional highs and lows. I remember watching countless K-pop music videos to draw inspiration for the lighting, as K-pop music videos can be very bold, experimental, and eccentric. Providing many iterations of lighting setups helped our directors, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, discover what worked and what didn’t work visually for the scene. This was the most collaborative assignment I got to be a part of, and it was so rewarding to see it all come together in the final film!” - She shared.
She stated that she joined the project when the majority of the world in the film had already been designed, and her first reaction was to be overwhelmed by the amount of work that her colleagues had completed.
According to her, the creative team did an amazing job depicting and appreciating Korean culture and K-pop genuinely. Everything, from the environment to the characters to the smallest detail, was thoughtfully crafted based on extensive research to create a vibrant and authentic world with a cultural feel.
In conclusion, artist Tiffany Pham feels thrilled and pleased that the film has gotten widespread acclaim from international audiences. She believes that “KPop Demon Hunters” has served as a stepping stone for many new followers into the world of K-pop. Above all, she feels really pleased and honored to be involved in such a K-pop-inspired endeavor.
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