Animating .gif on .gif background

Question

hi,
i am making a little fish game where you can click directional buttons to move fish .gifs around a fish tank.
i am trying to display .gif pictures of fish on top of my background, im struggling with paint and update and layeredpanes and whether to use a thread.
if i can display a fish and know it's x and y co-ordinates that would be a great help. heres the code for the main window:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.Image.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.sound.sampled.*;
import java.awt.image.ImageObserver.*;
//                      Main Window
//            | ________________    ________ |
//            ||     fish       || |        || < information
//            ||                || |________||
// animation >||                || |        || < variables
//            ||   fish         || |________||
//            ||                || |________|| < actions
//            ||                ||  _ _ _    |
//            ||           fish || |_|_|_|   | < directions
//            ||                || |_|_|_|   |
//            ||________________|| |_|_|_|   |  
//Driver Class
public class mainWindow
    FishGame game1;
    public mainWindow(int diff, FishGame fG)
        Frame f = new fishWindow("Let's Get Battered");
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
        int difficulty = diff;
        game1 = fG;
        Dimension dim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        // Determine the new location of the window
        int w = f.getSize().width;
        int h = f.getSize().height;
        int x = (dim.width-w)/2;
        int y = (dim.height-h)/2;
        // Move the window
        f.setLocation(x, y);
//Frame Class
    class fishWindow extends Frame
        //Constructor
        public fishWindow(String title)
            super(title);
// Panels & layout ---------------------------------------
            setLayout(new BorderLayout(20,10));
            setBackground(Color.gray);
            JPanel directionsPanel = new JPanel();
            JPanel actionsPanel = new JPanel();
            JPanel variablesPanel = new JPanel();
            JPanel informationPanel = new JPanel();
            JPanel animationPanel = new JPanel();
            JPanel eastContainerPanel = new JPanel();
            JLayeredPane layeredPane = new JLayeredPane();
            eastContainerPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(4,1));
            directionsPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,3));
            actionsPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,3));
            informationPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,2));
            add("West", animationPanel);
            add("East", eastContainerPanel);
            eastContainerPanel.add(informationPanel);
            eastContainerPanel.add(variablesPanel);
            eastContainerPanel.add(actionsPanel);
            eastContainerPanel.add(directionsPanel);
            addWindowListener(new WindowCloser());
// anitmationPanel ---------------------------------------
             //****************background**********************//
             Image tank = null;
             try
                 File file = new File("fishbackground.gif");
                 tank = ImageIO.read(file);
             catch (IOException e)
             JLabel background = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(tank));
             //*******************images***********************//
             Toolkit toolkit = getToolkit();
             Image fish1 = null;
             fish1 = toolkit.createImage("fish1.gif");
             Image fish2 = null;
             fish2 = toolkit.createImage("fish2.gif");
             Image fish3 = null;
             fish3 = toolkit.createImage("fish3.gif");
             Image whale = null;
             whale = toolkit.createImage("whale.gif");
             //*******************drawing***********************//            
             JLabel fish1Label = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(fish1));
             layeredPane.add(background, new Integer(0));  //low layer
             layeredPane.add(fish1Label, new Integer(1));  //high layer
             animationPanel.add(background);
             animationPanel.add(fish1Label);
// actionsPanel ------------------------------------------
            JButton Eat = new JButton("Eat");
            JButton Attack = new JButton("Attack");
            Eat.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
            Attack.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
            actionsPanel.add(Eat);
            actionsPanel.add(Attack);
// directionsPanel ---------------------------------------
            JButton up = new JButton();
            JButton down = new JButton();
            JButton left = new JButton();
            JButton right = new JButton();
            JButton topleft = new JButton();
            JButton topright = new JButton();
            JButton bottomleft = new JButton();
            JButton bottomright = new JButton();
            JButton middle = new JButton();
            up.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_up.gif"));
            down.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_down.gif"));
            left.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_left.gif"));
            right.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_right.gif"));
            topleft.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_topleft.gif"));
            topright.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_topright.gif"));
            bottomleft.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_bottomleft.gif"));
            bottomright.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_bottomright.gif"));
            middle.setIcon(new ImageIcon("arrow_middle.gif"));
            directionsPanel.add(topleft);
            directionsPanel.add(up);
            directionsPanel.add(topright);
            directionsPanel.add(left);
            directionsPanel.add(middle);
            directionsPanel.add(right);
            directionsPanel.add(bottomleft);
            directionsPanel.add(down);
            directionsPanel.add(bottomright);
// informationPanel --------------------------------------
            JLabel name = new JLabel(game1.getName());
            JLabel day = new JLabel("Day: "+String.valueOf(game1.getDay()));
            JLabel turn = new JLabel("Turn: "+String.valueOf(game1.getTurn()));
            JLabel fishType = new JLabel("Fish: "+game1.getFishType());
            JLabel fishSize = new JLabel("Size: "+String.valueOf(game1.getSize()));
            JLabel hP = new JLabel("Health: "+String.valueOf(game1.getHp()));
            informationPanel.add(name);
            informationPanel.add(day);
            informationPanel.add(turn);
            informationPanel.add(fishType);
            informationPanel.add(fishSize);
            informationPanel.add(hP);
// variablesPanel --------------------------------------
            TextField stomach = new TextField();
            TextField xpos = new TextField();
            TextField ypos = new TextField();
        } // END class FishWindow
        class ButtonListener implements ActionListener
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent x)
                //if {}
                //else{}
        class WindowCloser extends WindowAdapter
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent x)
                System.exit(0);
}

Answer 1

In the future, Swing related questions should be posted in the Swing forum.
im struggling with paint and update There is no need to override those methods. That is a technique used an AWT applications.
and layeredpanes Read the Swing tutorial on [url http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/layeredpane.html]How to Use Layered Panes. One key is that layered panes use a null layout, which means you must set the bounds (size and location) of the component you add to the layered pane. If you don't the size is 0 and the component will not be painted.
and whether to use a thread.Not sure what you mean by this. If the user click the button you simply change the location of the image in the direction indicated. If you want the fish to continue moving in that direction until another button is clicked then you would use a Swing Timer to schedule the movement at a regular interval. The tutorial also has a section on Timers.
> layeredPane.add(background, new Integer(0));  //low layer
layeredPane.add(fish1Label, new Integer(1)); //high layer
animationPanel.add(background);
animationPanel.add(fish1Label);A component can only be added to a single parent.
TextField stomach = new TextField();Don't use AWT components in a Swing application
> add("West", animationPanel);Don't use literal strings to specify the constraint use:
add(animationPanel, BorderLayout.WEST)