Animated gif layered above background image

Question

I have a static background image which is displayed in a JPanel. I need to display animated gifs at certain positions on the base image. For every new frame of the animation, the paint method is called whcih attempts to load the entire base image + all the new animated images which is extremely slow!. It also means the animated gif keeps on getting loaded, and seldom gets beyond the first frame.
Im sure many people have had to do something like this. Is the solution to draw the gifs on the glasspane (or use layered panes), and to have a seperate paint method? or is their a simple approach like setting a special clip area.

Answer 1

thanks for the help...
The size of the background image is approx 400*400 pixels (gif or jpg), and the icons are 25*25, and have between 1 and 6 frames.
Here comes the code... I havent finished with the mediatracker stuff, but youll get the idea Im sure.
  public void paint(Graphics g) {
    MediaTracker tracker = new MediaTracker(this);
    tracker.addImage(image,0);
    try {tracker.waitForID(0);}
    catch (InterruptedException e){}
    g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this); //draw background image (approx 400*400 pixels)
    int ICON_ID = -1;
    Image img;
    //draw all the icons...
    //all icons have between 1 and 6 frames. 25*25 pixels.   
    for (int i = 0; i < icon_IDs.size(); i++) {
      try {
        ICON_ID = new Integer(icon_IDs.elementAt(i).toString()).intValue();
        Point p = dm.getIconPosition(ICON_ID);
        if (isAlarm(ICON_ID)) {        //ITS AN ALARM - use animated gif
          img = getAlarmImage(ICON_ID);
        else                          //NORMAL ICON - no animation
          img = DataDefinition.getImageIcon(dm.getIconType(ICON_ID)).getImage();
        tracker.addImage(img,0);
        try {tracker.waitForID(0);}
        catch (InterruptedException e){}
        int width = DataDefinition.getSize(dm.getIconType(ICON_ID)).width;
        int height = DataDefinition.getSize(dm.getIconType(ICON_ID)).height;
        g.setClip(p.x, p.y, p.x+width, p.y+height);
        g.drawImage(img, p.x, p.y, p.x+width, p.y+height, 0,0,img.getWidth(this),img.getHeight(this),this);
      catch (SQLException sqle) {
        System.out.println("Could not find position of icon : " + ICON_ID);
  }