Peter Harakaly was born in Kosice, Slovakia. Recently, he studied classical and digital character animation at Vancouver Film School. Unlike most of other animators he encountered, Harakaly didn't have an artistic background. He had studied math, computer science, programming and network systems. While studying computers, he got interested in CG and animation, and that’s why he decided to go to VFS after university.

“Cheese” is Harakaly's third short film. He completed all his films (Fishin’ Impossible, Bedtime story, and Cheese) at VFS as his final projects. Unlike the first two films, "Cheese” is all 3D animation except the visual effects, which were done in Flash.

The film is a throwback to the cartoons of the 40s and 50s. What could be more iconic of that era's animation than a mouse trying to get cheese off of a mousetrap without getting whacked? The film even has a bouncy musical soundtrack right out of that simpler time.

"'Cheese' is based around the simple idea of greediness. The mouse, the main character of story, is smart but greedy. Some people think that he is just a stupid mouse, but he is not. He knows there is a trap waiting for him, and he knows how to cheat it to get what he wants.

But even then, cheating the trap is just not enough. Even after he achieved his goal and he is really full, so full that he can’t even walk, he must have every last bit...

CLICK HERE TO VISIT the CHEESE WEBSITE

I created 'Cheese' while I studied at Vancouver Film School. It was my final school project. Before the program started, I had a totally different idea what I wanted to do for my final project. But because of the limited time we had and some other limitations (for instance, we were instructed to keep this project to one character in one set), I came up with this story about a mouse and a piece of cheese.

I can’t say I was inspired by something or someone and I can’t say I had this idea in my mind long time ago. This idea just hit me, and that’s it. What I liked about this story was that it is kind of funny and it has very simple idea with a moral at the end. It was also very easy to make changes along the way without affecting the ending and main point of story. That’s why I stayed with this story and I don’t regret it.

"I can’t say I was inspired by something or someone and I can’t say I had this idea in my mind long time ago. This idea just hit me, and that’s it."        --Peter Harakaly

I had only six months to finish this film. I spent four months learning the software, coming up with the story and designs, creating scenes and the character, and I spent the final two months rigging, animating and rendering it. Six months really isn’t a lot of time to create a film.

When I mentioned to my mentors I wanted to create fur, they weren’t very happy (because of the obstacle fur shaders can be) so I had to do fur without their permission.

For me, the most important part of process was character animation. This is the part I like most when I’m working on a film. I feel animation is giving objects personality, bringing them to life, expressing thoughts and emotions simply by movement, without words.

I’m happy I successfully completed this film, and hope you like it.

       --Peter Harakaly, APR 2007