I need help with animation, PLEASE help!

Question

I am trying to create pacman animation by using a series of filled arcs that I create by coding in java. I know how to create the arcs, but I don't know how to use them to create animation. In other words I don't know how to put them in sequence to create animation.
I have searched the web, and all I find is animation that use a series of GIF or JPEG images.
can you please help me or point me to the right direction.
by the way, which of these two animation would run faster? The one that uses GIF images, or the one that would use shapes created in java?
Thanx

Answer 1

Perhaps you could do this two ways
One way, (im not sure if this will work), is to create a .gif file that is already animated. An open mouth animated to a closed mouth. But i don't know if Java will accept this.
The second way would be to create a Thread. And to create however many images you want to display the open to closed mouth. Then continuously change the image so it appears the mouth is opening and closing.
Put in a delay so it doens't go too fast, and there ya have it.
Public void run()
int i =0;
while(true)
myThread.sleep(10);
image = difImage;
}something like that. Might used a bufferedImage and make just use subImage to pull off each picture you need to change.