Position: Assistant Professor of Practice in Digital Arts
Email: jakezhang@hkust-gz.edu.cn
Research Area (s):AI Animation Pipeline, AI-assisted screenwriting, Storytelling, Creator experience, Immersive Storytelling.
Background: Jake Junjie Zhang is an award-winning animation director, screenwriter, educator, and researcher currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Practice in Computational Media and Arts (CMA) and Associate Director of the MFA program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). As a founding faculty member of the CMA Thrust, his work bridges traditional storytelling, cultural heritage, and emerging creative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AIGC) and Virtual Reality (VR). He holds a BA in Digital Media from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and an MFA in Animation and Digital Arts from the University of Southern California (USC). He previously served as a Professor of Animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design (Hong Kong) and an IP screenwriter for Digital Domain (USA).
Jake’s major credits include directing and writing Hakka Dreams (中国奇谭2之《拜山》), a core episode of the flagship animated anthology Yao-Chinese Folktales Season 2 produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Bilibili, which amassed over 100 million views; and directing and writing the AIGC cultural animated short The Great Man (《一个砖头的诞生》), funded by the Hong Kong SAR Government's Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA).
His films have been awarded at festivals worldwide, including the Gold Award at the 8th Hong Kong Animation Support Program, the Jury Award at the 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Winner of Special Storytelling Designation at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards, and the Distinction Award at the Athens Animfest.
Drawing on extensive frontline animation production experience and deep observation of industry bottlenecks, his main research interests encompass virtual reality content creation, immersive storytelling, creator experience optimization, and AIGC-driven industrial animation pipelines. His research has been published in top international venues, including IEEE VR and ACM CHI. He also authored the book chapter "The Path to Cinematic Immersion: Creating VR Animation in China" in the volume Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion published by Harvard University Press.