Before joining Spire, Hans spent almost 17 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios. A versatile artist, Hans worked in multiple departments and different roles. His last projects were Zootopia+ (Head of Environments) and Encanto, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, where he was the Environment Lead Lighter. Other highlights of his career include the Oscar win for Zootopia (Head of Environments) and Frozen (Lighting Supervisor; Environment Look Dev Supervisor) which was Disney’s first win for an animated feature.

Meet the Robinsons (Lighting) was Hans’ first movie at Disney. He also worked on Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph as the Character Lead Lighter, and on lighting and layout finaling for Ralph Breaks the Internet. He worked on numerous shorts and TV specials like “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” (Head of Environments) and Prep and Landing (Lighting) which won four Emmys.

Hans was born and raised in Germany. He graduated from the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, where he studied Graphic Design. The next semester he was already teaching Computer Aided Design as an Associate Professor at his University. Hans lives in Glendale with his wife and he is also an avid Photographer. His two boys are often the subject of his photoshoots.