CroftSoft / Library / Tutorials

Java Swing Sprite Animation

David Wallace Croft
Senior Java Architect
CroftSoft Inc

2002-02-25

Abstract

This tutorial describes how to program sprite animation using a Java Swing component with a special emphasis on differences between older AWT-based sprite animation methods. In the process of introducing current methods of sprite animation, this tutorial introduces several reusable sprite classes which are available to the reader under the terms of an Open Source license.

Since I first wrote this tutorial three years ago, I have made a number of changes to the Swing animation library, including replacing classes and updating techniques originally described in this document. For a revised version of this tutorial, please see Chapters 3 and 4 of Advanced Java Game Programming. -- David Wallace Croft, 2005-04-12

Demonstration

In order to run the sprite animation demonstration applet, you must first install Java 1.4.

Contents

• Background
• AnimationCanvas
• Resources

Author

David Wallace Croft is a Senior Java Architect for CroftSoft Inc. He began his career as a Java developer back in 1996 when he joined a small online entertainment startup. His early success there at creating a high-performance animated user interface for an applet-based multiplayer online role playing game using standard AWT components convinced him of the viability of Java as a game development platform. In 1999, he founded the Game Developers Java Users Group (GameJUG) web site after observing a distressing decline in the number of published books on Java game programming. He lives with his wife and three young children just outside of Dallas.