Behind the Success of Spirit Master: Integrating Knowledge and Action, Industry-Academia Collaboration Empowers the Upgrading of China’s Animation Industry

In early spring 2026, a dark horse has stormed the domestic animation market. Spirit Master, a 2D animated series independently produced by Changchun Zhixingheyi Animation Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Zhixingheyi Animation”), debuted on Bilibili and scored an impressive 9.8 out of 10 within just three episodes, topping the platform’s trending charts. With its fluid action sequences and a core message of “my fate is in my own hands, not heaven’s,” the series has been hailed by netizens as a “beacon of Chinese animation.” The birth of this phenomenal work not only demonstrates the formidable strength of domestic 2D animation but also reflects the practical power of the philosophy of “integrating knowledge and action.” Behind its success lies the talent support of Jilin Animation Institute and the deep empowerment of an industry-academia collaborative education model, providing a replicable “Jilin model” for the high-quality development of China’s animation industry.

As the production entity behind Spirit Master, Zhixingheyi Animation has, since its establishment in 2016, consistently adhered to the philosophy of “integrating knowledge and action, building dreams with craftsmanship.” The company deeply integrates theoretical practice with creative innovation. Starting from taking on outsourced animation projects from overseas to accumulate experience, it has gradually deepened its focus on original IP and produced hit works. It has grown into a leader in Jilin’s cultural and creative sector and,凭借 its solid capabilities, has joined the first tier of domestic 2D animation production. The company has even participated in the core production of Hollywood blockbusters such as The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, earning high recognition from the international industry. Spirit Master, which took three years to complete and involved over 500 animators, is a vivid practice of the “integrating knowledge and action” philosophy — from script polishing and storyboard design to original art creation and post-production effects, every step strives for perfection. While staying true to its original creative vision, it also remains grounded in market demand, ultimately achieving a win-win of artistic and commercial value. People’s Daily Online praised it as “another highlight moment for domestic 2D animation.”

The success of Spirit Master would not be possible without its core talent, and behind that talent lies the crucial role of Jilin Animation Institute’s disciplinary strengths and talent cultivation strategies. As China’s first four-year undergraduate institution specializing in animation, Jilin Animation Institute has深耕 animation education for over two decades. Relying on its core “academic-research-production integration” model, it has built a unique talent development system, forming a virtuous cycle of “schools educating, enterprises employing” with Zhixingheyi Animation, making it an important cradle for domestic animation talent.

Jilin Animation Institute takes “integrating knowledge and action” as its educational core, closely aligning with the development needs of the animation industry. It has established a distinctive disciplinary system and talent cultivation strategy. The institute offers eight major program clusters, including ten national and provincial first-class undergraduate majors,构建 a disciplinary layout covering the entire industry chain from animation production and digital cultural creation to IP operation. It has also built nine provincial-level scientific research and technological innovation platforms and five “academic-production integrated practice teaching platforms,” bringing real enterprise projects into the campus, allowing students to enhance their professional skills through practical work. Its unique “homework → work → product → commodity” cultivation model ensures that students solidify their professional foundation in the first two years, enter studios in the third year to participate in real projects under teacher guidance, and by graduation have mature practical skills, quickly adapting to enterprise job requirements. This “theory + practice” cultivation model stays true to the educational mission while closely aligning with industry needs, perfectly embodying the educational philosophy of “integrating knowledge and action.”

Moreover, Jilin Animation Institute places a strong emphasis on cultivating innovative and entrepreneurial talent. It has launched a “joint entrepreneurship” mechanism, providing resources, space, and seed funding for students with entrepreneurial aspirations, helping them transform their ideas into actual projects. To date, nearly 400 alumni have successfully started their own businesses, driving over 3,000 jobs. Students have won two national gold awards in the “Internet+” College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition,培育 a group of versatile animation talents with both professional skills and entrepreneurial spirit. At the same time, the institute actively builds academic exchange platforms, inviting industry luminaries such as animation director Tim Webb and international animation expert Ravanbakhsh Sadeghi to give special lectures. It collaborates with institutions such as the Peking University Film and Television Drama Research Center on academic projects. At the Technical Forum of the 16th Beijing International Film Festival, it inaugurated the Film-Game Animation Industrial Aesthetics Research Institute, promoting the deep integration of research outcomes with industry practice and injecting cutting-edge vitality into talent cultivation.

Deep industry-academia collaboration serves as a bridge connecting talent cultivation with industrial development and is the core driving force behind the high-quality growth of the animation industry. The partnership between Jilin Animation Institute and Zhixingheyi Animation is a vivid example of this philosophy in action. Over 60% of the core creative team behind Spirit Master graduated from Jilin Animation Institute. They closely combine the professional knowledge acquired at school with the practical demands of enterprise work, injecting fresh energy into the creation of the work while achieving personal growth in sync with the company’s development. This collaboration model not only supplies enterprises with a large number of highly competent, practice-ready talents, addressing the pain points of “difficulty in hiring and talent gaps” in the animation industry, but also aligns the institute’s talent cultivation direction more closely with industry needs, achieving a “teaching-learning symbiosis and industry-academy win-win.”

From an industry development perspective, the industry-academia collaboration model injects sustained momentum into the domestic animation industry and has a profound impact. On one hand, collaboration enables resource complementarity: the institute’s research and talent advantages combine with the enterprise’s market and practical advantages, accelerating the transformation and application of research outcomes and driving innovation in animation production technology. As Jilin Animation Institute advocates, embracing new technologies such as AI and big data helps enterprises shorten production cycles and improve work quality. The AI technology independently developed by Zhixingheyi Animation has been selected as a “2025 People’s Daily Ingenuity Technology” case, a direct result of this industry-academia technical collaboration. On the other hand, the collaboration promotes the formation of local animation industry clusters. The talents cultivated by Jilin Animation Institute not only support the growth of Zhixingheyi Animation but also radiate to nearly 200 animation-related enterprises across the province, making Changchun a core cluster for Jilin’s animation industry. From The Frog Kingdom to Classic, Nice! and now to Spirit Master, works produced in Jilin have become a significant force in the domestic animation market.

Furthermore, industry-academia collaboration helps domestic animation achieve breakthroughs in “going global.” Zhixingheyi Animation’s ability to take on core production work for Hollywood blockbusters is inseparable from the technical support of professional talents cultivated by Jilin Animation Institute. The original The Frog Kingdom series from Jilin Animation Institute has been distributed to more than 20 countries worldwide, also benefiting from the high-quality content and international perspective created through industry-academia collaboration. This virtuous cycle of “talent cultivation → enterprise growth → industry upgrading → international breakthrough” provides a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the domestic animation industry.

The success of Spirit Master is both a practical achievement of the “integrating knowledge and action” philosophy and a vividepitome of industry-academia collaboration empowering industrial development. Jilin Animation Institute, with its distinctive disciplinary construction as its foundation and the “academic-research-production integration” as its path, practices the original educational mission of “integrating knowledge and action,” cultivating a large number of outstanding talents for the animation industry. Zhixingheyi Animation, using the enterprise as a vehicle, transforms talent advantages into creative advantages, producing original works of both quality and influence. Their deep collaboration not only solves problems such as talent shortages and disconnects between academia and industry but also promotes the clustering and high-quality development of the local animation industry, injecting new vitality into the revival of Chinese animation.

Looking ahead, as Jilin Province fosters the animation industry as a pillar industry, Jilin Animation Institute and Zhixingheyi Animation will continue to deepen their industry-academia partnership. They will remain committed to the original aspiration of “integrating knowledge and action,”深耕 cultural roots, embrace cutting-edge technologies, promote the creation of more high-quality original animation works, and cultivate more versatile animation talents. Together, they will serve as a “booster” for the upgrading of China’s animation industry, helping Chinese animation shine even brighter on the world stage.