Are you trying to animate the buttons color based on the input status or output status? You should be able to go into the appearence properties of the button and connect a digital (bit) tag to that animation. WinCC flexible is not real intuitive as there are different properties and check boxes that can affect animation. The button animation will also depend on what type of button you are using (momentary or maintained).
Hope this might help you move forward. Sorry if my comments are a little vague but I do not have the software in front of me right now.