java - How to make an animation with Swing?

Question

I am making a JApplet and got stuck with a animation problem.

Here is my code :

        this.sprite.setBounds(0,0,20,17);
        this.sprite.setIcon(this.rangerDown);
        for(int i = 0; i< 16;i++)
        {
            this.sprite.repaint();
            this.sprite.setLocation(this.sprite.getX(), this.sprite.getY()+10);
            try{
                Thread.currentThread().sleep(100);
            }catch(InterruptedException e){
            }
        }       

With this, there is no animation : nothing happens during the loop, the repaint() method seems to only act once the sprite stopped moving.

I would like to use only Swing for this, any ideas of how to proceed ?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

You should use a javax.swing.Timer to perform the animation rather than Thread sleeps. Here is a good link to get you going: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/timer.html

Also I highly recommend buying the book Filthy Rich Clients -- if you go to the website you can also download all the example code for free. For example, Chapter 12: Animation Fundamentals has some great examples, such as MovingButton that demonstrates the Timer usage.