Tutorial: How I jumped out of a MOVING CAR in 'one' take! (After Effects)

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Steve Ramsden here and today we are going to make it look like I'm jumping out of a moving car in a "single" long take, 1917 or Birdman style!

This stunt-based effect was actually suggested in the comments, but it's also one that I actually tried back when I was about 17 and I was making a home-made action film with my friends. In the original scene my character was being held prisoner in a car and was being taken for questioning, and when the car slows down at a bend in the road, I jump out and escape. Now this demonstrates how this scene would usually be done the easy way - you break the scene down in to several shots and it is simply a quick montage so you think you've seen something that didn't actually happen.

As the camera needed to move quickly and stay wide the whole time once again we decided to use a small action camera on a pole for this effect. This scene was made harder though because not only would I have to jump out of the car, but so would the camera in order to see me land on the ground and allow the scene to continue!

To begin with, we broke this down into sections we could film for real and found a location which would work for what we wanted to do. Obviously we need to start with one shot filmed in the moving car, end with one shot out by the road, and I planned a few other shots in between to help stitch these two main takes together.

When filming we decided to work backwards, as the action in the car and the scenery outside would need to match where I ended up. Therefore the first shot we needed was actually the final shot - me landing by the roadside and seeing the car speed off down the road. To do this we had the car waiting to drive down the road, then the cameraman and I ran down the grass and I tried to time a jump in the air with the moment the car drove past. Finally we got a take where the timing looked good, and as we figured the scene needed an ending, I quickly look at the car, realise I've escaped and then make a dash or it over a nearby gate and into a field.... and if it looks exhausting to do this a bunch of times, that's because it was!

The second shot we got was inside the car and this provided the first half of the scene - the camera is in the back, and it establishes I'm in the front along with a driver who is taking me somewhere I don't want to go. Next I quickly undo my seatbelt and open the door very slightly, and the camera whips out though the window as if it's following me out. We took the headrest off my seat to make everything easier to see. After a few false starts, again we got a shot we thought would work of the action, and the moment where the camera moves past the window divider is where our hidden cut will come.

Next we parked up and got a shot of me jumping out of the stationary car and landing on the ground.This is the shot that we are going to take our jumping figure from to join the two long takes together. To make sure we'd got enough options for a background, we next got a shot of the car driving along the road at full speed with the camera out the window on the pole. This gave us a great dramatic shot and showed the distance the camera would have to supposedly travel to end up out on the grass.

And then that was everything filmed and it was time fire up Adobe After Effects and cut out these various elements so we were just left with the bits we need.
You can do this either with the roto brush (for rotoscoping) or with the pen tool for drawing masks. in the end I did it mostly with masks as I found it a little easier. So this was a ton of layers but it was all just done with just the pen tool and some trial and error, so no fancy plugins or extra software needed at all - just a lot of patience!

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[CoolioHumphrey]

We need to see Steve's action movie he made when he was 17

[RapidActionAnimations]

That must have taken a lot of thinking and planning! Excellent execution on this!

[TheCountryCottageGardener]

Fantastic. I don't think my laptop could handle all the editing in this one 😂 am happy when I just add two of me in one shot lol. Thanks for sharing 👍👍

[GabrielWehrle]

Wow, that was incredible! Wasn't sure how that would all turn out at first, but as always, the end product was very convincing! Excellent work

[albertsitoe]

The dislikes on this video were just people who have no appreciation for skill and dedication, I loved this!

[SmookieYT]

Your grandpa is a legend for helping you out with another video!

[josh.]

That's an impressive effect for a budget production, makes it look like a bigger (more expensive) stunt. It's so quick that I don't think anyone will notice that reflections don't work that way 🤣

[garygrinkevich]

seriously better quality than most cable tv productions, I would love to see you do a video breaking down client pricing on a shoot like this with all your gear, and editing time there is not enough appreciation for the amount of work that goes into even simple and mediocre video production, all the graphic, motion tracking, color, and rotoscoping work for a 40 second scene the time of 3 grips you should be billing thousands for your production quality. nice work.

[neo]

all of that for a quick few seconds. amazing

[moreuse]

omg its so tedious, and you actually did the scenes. the stitches cleanup / merging also really good/clean. the colors needs more work but its already good

[darealliam]

I want to watch that old movie you made. I like seeing people having fun together making something cool

[TommyRosati]

Wow! This may be your best video yet. It's pretty advanced (in my opinion), but very well done. I may try this effect myself sometime.

[RSpudieD]

Nicely done! All those masks between shots really make it work well!

[cessers]

Your best one yet, Steve. Fantastic job.

[alicewu]

you are so talented and full of new ideas, and most importantly, you have that persistence to turn all these into real!! Amazing

[Mohak]

hey you should make a combination of the window smash plus jumping out the running car


(smashing the window and jumping out of the running car)

[AnimationGoneWrong]

Some great work, Steve! It's amazing how much you can get away with in these action shots. Masks, blurs, a cut here, some rotation there... TADA! LOL Well done! I haven't tried anything to fast moving... most of my SFX work has been for when it's just my son and I playing multiple roles. But those have worked out pretty well! You've raised the bar!!!

[starblazer]

Bravo on the tutorial and stunt effect!

[abhishekvaru]

Will Definitely try this out for my further Episodes !!!!


Thankyou for Guiding !!!

[bedo]

Why would the window reflection be flipped?