Animator prevents color change

I have a game object with 2 components: an animator controller and an image component (4.6 ui).
My animator contains an empty state, linked to an animation, that plays on trigger and affects the color.

If my animator component is active, while my empty state is playing, I can not change the color of the image.

Neither through the editor nor through script.

How can i change the color through script (editor), without disabling the animator controller?
Is this behavior a bug or a feature?

I would have expected i can change the color, as long as the current animation doesn’t affect it.

As a workaround i will probably have to affect the color every-time with an animation, but this is a bit harder than by script, most of the time.

I had the same issue while creating my game. Simply change the color in your update. The issue is that when the animator plays the next frame, it resets the color.