Endless Possibilities with SketchTank: Virtual Coloring Aquarium
Turn every visitor into an artist—and every idea into an immersive, educational, and interactive world.
SketchTank began as a virtual coloring aquarium, but its true power is its flexibility. Because the experience is software-driven, we can re-skin, re-script, and re-imagine the exhibit for virtually any setting, audience, or curriculum goal. Whether you need to reinforce STEM concepts, celebrate local wildlife, or simply wow guests with share-worthy moments, SketchTank evolves to fit your story.
Custom SketchTanks Ideas
Colorado Mountain Wilderness
Guests color native species then watch them inhabit a sweeping alpine valley that shifts from wildflower‑filled summers to snow‑capped winters. Sketchtanks can be designed with water, land, air, and even space themes. Can’t decide on one? We can also mix themes.
Butterfly Garden – Franklin Park Conservatory (Columbus, OH)
Dozens of butterflies of various species flutter through a lush and vibrant garden surrounding a towering waterfall.
Artificial Reef – Destin-Fort Walton Beach Welcome Centers (Florida)
A photo‑real 3D artificial reef flourishes with sea turtles and snapper—until invasive lionfish creep in. Kids are tasked with coloring and deploying divers to capture those pests and restore balance to the environment. Built with a top-down perspective (like a glass-bottom boat) and giant touchscreen display, not only can kids color native species and divers to keep the reef healthy, fun facts and interactions are just a tap away. But don’t tap too much or it’ll attract the reef shark! All the visitor’s drawings are mapped to 3D models so they move in realistic detail.
Spinnovation (Physics Playground) – Explore & More Children’s Museum (Buffalo, NY)
The city of Buffalo has a rich history of invention and innovation and a lot of it revolves around wheels. In this digital spin on the SketchTank formula, kids design spinning wheels using a variety of brushes, stamps, and a fun spirograph tool, then give them an awesome physics particle trail. When ready, they swipe up to launch them into a blueprint‑styled sandbox on the big screen above. Wheels collide, bounce, and occasionally magnet‑snap onto sketched Rube Goldberg machines, powering gears, lights, and whimsical Buffalo‑inspired inventions.
Historic Aircraft Hangar – NASA Virginia Air & Space Center
With a physical space designed to look like a vintage “barn” hangar, visitors color historic aircraft and scan them to see them appear as 3D and take off on a widescreen projection of an airfield along the hangar barn door. The seasons of this epic outdoor scene change with the real world autumn foliage, winter snowdrifts and grazing cows on a neighboring farm that look up as planes roar overhead.
Take Flight – Paper Airplanes – Strong Museum of Play (Rochester, NY)
The ultimate mix of digital and physical. Once visitors color a paper airplane template, they see the vibrant digital copy fold into a streamlined paper airplane before their eyes on-screen. Then it launches on the big screen, soaring through a fun 3D modeled suburban backyard, zipping around obstacles and other planes, landing in a whimsical spot that causes childlike giddiness each time.
Move Mobility Museum (Amsterdam)
This installation blends hands-on creativity with city-scale play. Visitors color everything from bicycles to buses, scan them, and watch as their vibrant vehicles spring to life on a stylized black-and-white map of Amsterdam painted across the exhibit-hall wall. As the digital streets fill, windmills spin, traffic signals change, and the city lights up with beautifully projected animations.
Enchanted Fairy Garden
Guests design luminous fairies complete with glittering wings and wand styles. As they flutter through a twilight glen, casting spells that unfurl animated blossoms, seasonal events kick in—fireflies in summer, drifting leaves in autumn, or icy frost‑patterns in winter—keeping repeat visits fresh.
Trade Show Photo Stand‑In Booth
Sketchtank isn’t just for kids. At conferences and expos, attendees could design their own cut-out scene and write their own greeting. Moments later, their artwork is projected onto a full‑size cut‑out with cartoon bodies and a city backdrop. Visitors step behind the board, align their faces with the openings, and snap a hilarious scene, ready to be shared, carrying the booth’s brand with it. The experience generates memorable swag, viral photos, and valuable lead‑capture data for exhibitors.
Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Earth
Guests color dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures while discovering their scientific names, behaviors, and fascinating fun facts. Once scanned, these ancient giants come to life, roaming across a dramatic Triassic landscape. Guests can even color a towering volcano, then watch it erupt spectacularly in the background.
Solar Systems and Space Exploration
Choose a planet and make it your own. Fun facts on each coloring page offer clues about the planet’s colors, surface features, and atmosphere. Once scanned, each creation joins a shared solar system, orbiting the sun alongside other guests’ stellar designs. Visitors can also color a rocket, watch it launch from Earth, and send it zipping from planet to planet on an interplanetary adventure. It is a perfect way for planetariums and science centers to engage young visitors through hands-on creativity, discovery, and play.
Dream Wall
Each sheet invites guests to complete a prompt such as “My dream trip includes…” and illustrate what they imagine. Once scanned, their words and artwork appear in a dynamic projected collage of hopes, ideas, and destinations, with individual creations cycling into the spotlight throughout the day. The installation can also be designed as a photo-ready backdrop, encouraging guests to pose with their creations and share memorable, Instagram-worthy moments that extend the brand experience beyond the show floor.
Guest Art Gallery
Guests color reinterpretations of famous masterpieces, then scan their artwork to see it displayed in ornate digital frames alongside creations from other visitors. Designed as a non-projection installation, the gallery can use framed LCD or ePaper displays to create the feel of a living, ever-changing exhibition. Finished artwork can also be sent directly to a gift shop printer and transformed into an instant souvenir, such as a T-shirt, mug, or canvas print.
Community Builder
Guests design and color their own buildings, then watch them become part of a growing neighborhood filled with cheerful residents. Add a fire station and firefighters and trucks spring into action. Create a pizza shop and hungry neighbors stop by for a slice. Build a park and watch chirping birds take flight overhead. The more guests contribute, the bigger, busier, and more vibrant the community becomes.
What is even possible?
From animal species to inanimate objects, specific and fantastical environments, anything goes. We can even make a paper-less touch screen creation station with an assortment of exciting creative tools, and stack on interactions to keep your visitors endlessly engaged. Here are just a few of our most common requests:
Themes & Settings. Swap out the backdrop and mood to match your narrative—from alpine meadows and coral reefs to bustling city skylines, Martian colonies, or a story‑book fairy realm.
Subjects to Color. Fish are just the beginning. Invite guests to bring to life land mammals, insects, mythical beasts, historic vehicles, architectural landmarks, or even abstract shapes that behave according to your curriculum.
Any Screen. The environment can be designed to any screen size, resolution, or shape. Portrait, wide, ultra-wide, globe and more.
Environment & Camera. Choose a classic “aquarium” side view, or let visitors roam a fully 3‑D world where the camera dives, swoops, and orbits. Weather cycles, day‑night transitions, and seasonal set‑dressing add realism and surprise.
Interactive Behaviors. Each creation can have its own AI profile—shy, bold, hungry, mischievous as well as cause‑and‑effect moments like invasive‑species takeovers or pollination chains. Your SketchTank can be built for touch screens (wall or table mounted) and touch‑points reveal fun facts or trigger mini‑events to drive education.
Input Options. Stick with paper templates for the magic of real‑world scanning, go completely digital on touchscreens with unlimited colors, textures, animated stickers and advanced brushes. Digital input also unlocks the possibility of additional interactions such as quizzes, minigames, and sending to other exhibits.
Output & Takeaways. Finished art doesn’t have to end on the big screen, it can be pushed to additional sources: onto an on‑site gallery wall, print instantly on postcards, magnets, or T‑shirts, and even follow visitors home via QR code downloads or social‑share links.
Educational Layers. Overlay curriculum‑aligned goals, progress meters, or events, each tailored to grade level and learning objective, without altering the core creative fun.
Ready to Bring Your SketchTank to Life?
Imagination is the only requirement—our team will handle the code, art, and interactivity that turn your vision into a show‑stopping attraction. Whether you have a fully formed concept or just a spark of inspiration, we’ll guide you from first sketch to finished experience.
Start the discussion here and tell us what you’d like to see swimming, soaring, or spinning on your screen.
