How to hit somebody with a car (not literally)
Or… how to composite someone into a shot so it LOOKS like they’re being hit by a car. We accomplished this in our film “Freddy” using AE and Premiere.
First lock down the camera on a tripod. Get one shot with Freddy standing there, one shot of just the background with the car driving past, and one clean shot of the background (called the background plate or back plate). Now you have all your elements.
Use the pen tool in Adobe After Effects to create a matte and patch the shots together. At the moment of desired impact, make a mask around Freddy and animate it so he rotates, like he’s getting hit and thrown out of frame. Apply motion blur or other effects if you’d like.
A similar effect could probably be accomplished frame-by-frame in Adobe Photoshop. But the AE route is much easier and more efficient.
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