The Ink Tank was an American animation studio based in New York City. It was founded by R.O. Blechman after he produced the PBS Christmas special Simple Gifts. They went on to produce hundreds of commercials and provided work on some television shows. Sometime in 1997, the studio opened a short-lived division called The Ink Tank Too. After it's main collaborators, Richard O'Connor and Brian O'Connell both left the company, the studio was shuttered in 2004.
However that same year, they founded Asterisk, another animation company also located in New York and also provided work for commercials and shows. Asterisk was later rebranded as Ace & Son Moving Picture Company in the 2010's. Considering both The Ink Tank and Asterisk worked on Sesame Street, Between the Lions, various They Might Be Giants music videos, various commercial work and having some of the same production staff, both studios' work are listed in this article.
Shows worked on by The Ink Tank:
- Between the Lions (multiple segments including the Fun with Chicken Jane, The Adventures of Cliff Hanger and Tiger Words segments)
- Big Bag (Troubles the Cat segments)
- Caroline in the City (animated sequences)
- Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales ("Brahms’ Lullaby" segment)
- Great Performances (1 episode)List
- I Spy (season 1 only)
- KaBlam! (Sniz & Fondue segments for season 1, plus 3 additional one-off shorts)List
- Kids are Punny (2 segments)
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (main title sequence)
- Plaza Sésamo (several break bumpers)
- Sesame Street (Elmo's World TV channel segments, season 1 only)
- TV Funhouse (3 shorts)List
- Twas the Night ("Winter Wonderland" segment)
as Asterisk:
- Between the Lions (Fun with Chicken Jane and The Adventures of Cliff Hanger segments) (season 6 only, replacing The Ink Tank)
- Curious (graphics and animation)
- Little Pim
- Sesame Street (1 segment)List
Tropes associated with The Ink Tank:
- Animation Bump:
- A lot of their commercial work tends to be fluid.
- The earlier Cliff Hanger segments from Between the Lions also had pretty fluid animation although it was averted in the later seasons.
- Limited Animation: Most of their animation work for television shows.
- Production Posse: Both studios were frequently used for multiple They Might Be Giants music videos.
- Stop Motion: I Spy.
