What is the dashed line for? How your bird flaps its wings
There is a dashed line in the middle of the canvas. Most people don't notice it when they draw their first bird, and then they ask why the bird doesn't flap. In this post I explain what that line does.
The drawing is split in two
When you send your bird flying, DrawBird cuts your drawing in two at the dashed line. The lower half stays as it is. This is the bird's body. The upper half keeps getting shorter and longer. It gets pressed toward the line, then opens back up, and for a moment it even goes below the line. So the upper half becomes the wing.
That makes the rule simple. Draw the wing above the line and the body below it. If you draw the whole bird below the line, your bird flies but doesn't flap. If you draw the whole bird above it, this time the whole bird flaps, a bit like an accordion.
Everything above the line flaps
DrawBird doesn't know what a wing is. It only looks at where something is relative to the line. If you move the head or the crest above the line, they go up and down with the wing. That's why, in the hoopoe lesson, we keep the crest below the line.
Of course, you can also use this on purpose. If you draw a rabbit with its ears above the line, it flies with its ears. It doesn't have to be a bird. Anything with a wing flies.
A few small tips
- Draw the wing big. The wing gets shorter as it flaps. If you draw it big, the movement is easier to see.
- Use a thick pen. Your bird gets small in the sky, and thin lines disappear there.
- Direction doesn't matter. You can draw your bird facing right or left. It turns by itself in the sky, depending on where it flies.
- Empty spots don't fly. The places you didn't draw stay transparent. Your bird only shows as much as you drew.
If you want to try it step by step, check out the drawing lessons. Each lesson also shows where the wing goes.