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Post-Production ​

This page is generated. Do not edit it by hand — run scripts/atlas-vocab.py.

part of Creative Production · tier 1 · 0 pieces of work carry it · 5 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it ​

Brands hire post-production when the material exists but the finished piece doesn't: cutting a campaign film from dailies, color-and-finishing a spot for broadcast, perfecting campaign photography, or adding effects polish. The market sells this family as 'VFX/Post', 'Editorial', and 'Color & Finishing'.

The finishing craft field: transforming captured or assembled footage and imagery into the released piece — assembling the cut, grading color, cleaning and enhancing images, and creating/integrating effects. Post-Production refines material other disciplines originated rather than originating imagery itself. Parent family of Editing, Color Grading, Retouching, Visual Effects, and Compositing (live children; Data Visualization is NOT in this family — it sits under Design).

Tag it when… ​

Tag when finishing work on pre-existing footage or imagery is the evident craft: visible edit construction, deliberate applied color treatment, pixel-level image cleanup, or effects integration. Use this L1 tag ALONE when post work is clearly present but the specific leaf (Editing vs Color Grading vs Retouching vs VFX vs Compositing) cannot be determined — an honest discipline-known/leaf-unknown L1 tag is legal (CM1).

Never tag it when… ​

Never tag when the craft claim is about ORIGINATING the imagery: capture goes to Video Production (cinematography) or Photography; from-scratch motion goes to Animation; static composed artwork goes to Design; end-to-end AI-generated footage goes to Generative AI Production (CD4). Never derive the tag from what the piece is about, its content type, or its format — any content type can carry post-production craft; only visible finishing work qualifies.

Easily mistaken for 5 other crafts ​

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

  • disc video production — Video Production captures and produces footage; Post-Production finishes it. The photography of the shot is cinematography craft; the visible cut/grade/effects on top of it are Post-Production.
  • disc animation — Animation originates motion imagery from scratch; Post-Production treats material that already exists. A fully animated piece stays Animation craft even though it was finished in the same tools.
  • disc design — Design produces composed static artifacts; the Post-Production leaf Retouching repairs/enhances captured photographs. If the image was laid out rather than shot-then-fixed, it is Design.
  • disc generative ai production — Footage synthesized end-to-end by a generative model is Generative AI Production craft with ai_generated on the content_origin facet; Post-Production requires pre-existing captured/assembled material being finished.
  • content type vocabulary (branded content / documentary / film tv / commercial spot) — These name WHAT the piece is, never how it was finished — content-type territory (the canon's four-way distinction). A documentary and a commercial can each carry heavy or zero post craft; never use the piece's type as evidence for or against this tag.

At what size it applies ​

Asset tag when finishing craft is a visible, hire-worthy claim about the whole piece (every released film has SOME post — tag only when the finishing itself is the achievement). A post treatment confined to one beat (an effects moment, a mid-film grade shift) is a moment tag on that segment.

The 6 crafts inside it ​

Where to look next ​

Atlas — the BrandTrackers domain model. Source: git markdown, drift-checked against the live DB.