Animation flashing - animation

Question

I continuously have this problem with all my most recent animation projects. Every time I run my animations, they never seem to be completely visible and full, but rather they blink and flash similar to a light bulb that is not fully screwed in ( i know, strange comparison but I can't think of what else it resembles). I feel like it must have something to do with my placement of repaint(); but I'm just not sure at this point. On a previous animation I made, the problem was that my "private BufferedImage offScr" variable wasn't set correctly, but viewing other programs similar to the one I am working on now, I don't see why that variable would be necessary. Thanks for all your help folks, and I apologize for my lack of knowledge in programming vocabulary.
Here is my program so far:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
public class DoveAnimator extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
private int DELAY = 40; // the delay for the animation
private final int WIDTH = 400; // the window width
private final int HEIGHT = 180; // the window height
private final int IMAGEAMT = 8;
private Image [] doveLeft = new Image[IMAGEAMT];
private Image [] doveRight = new Image[IMAGEAMT];
private int doveIndex = 0;
private boolean isRight = true;
private JPanel dovePanel;
private Image dove;
private JButton slowerButton = new JButton ("Slower");
private JButton fasterButton = new JButton ("Faster");
private JButton reverseButton = new JButton ("Reverse");
private JButton pauseResumeButton = new JButton (" pause ");
private Timer timer;
private int clicks = 2;
private boolean pause = false;
/** The constructor */
public DoveAnimator() {
MediaTracker track = new MediaTracker(this);
for (int i = 0; i < IMAGEAMT; ++i) {
doveLeft[i] = new ImageIcon("doves/ldove" + (i+1) + ".gif").getImage();
doveRight[i] = new ImageIcon("doves/rdove" + (i+1) + ".gif").getImage();
track.addImage(doveLeft[i],0);
track.addImage(doveRight[i],0);
}
// dove = doveRight[0];
//track.addImage(bkgImage,0);
// track.addImage(dove,0);
try {
track.waitForAll();
} catch ( InterruptedException e ) { }
dove = doveRight[0];
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
mainPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(WIDTH, HEIGHT));
setTitle ("Dove Animator");
dovePanel = new JPanel();
dovePanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 125));
dovePanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
mainPanel.add(dovePanel);
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(WIDTH, 40));
// button 1
slowerButton.addActionListener (this);
buttonPanel.add (slowerButton);
// button 2
fasterButton.addActionListener (this);
buttonPanel.add (fasterButton);
// button 3
reverseButton.addActionListener (this);
buttonPanel.add (reverseButton);
// button 4
pauseResumeButton.addActionListener (this);
buttonPanel.add (pauseResumeButton);
mainPanel.add(buttonPanel);
add(mainPanel);
setDefaultCloseOperation (JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setVisible (true);
pack();
timer = new Timer(DELAY,this); // setting timer delay
timer.start(); // start the timer
}
public void switchDove() {
++doveIndex;
if (doveIndex >= IMAGEAMT)
doveIndex = 0;
if (isRight)
dove = doveRight[doveIndex];
else
dove = doveLeft[doveIndex];
dove = (isRight) ? doveRight[doveIndex] : doveLeft[doveIndex];
}
/** Handler for button clicks and timer events */
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent evt) {
if (evt.getSource() == slowerButton)
{
DELAY += 10;
}
else if (evt.getSource() == reverseButton)
{
if(evt.getSource() == reverseButton && isRight == true){
isRight = false;
}
else if(evt.getSource() == reverseButton && !isRight){
isRight = true;
}
}
else if (evt.getSource() == fasterButton)
{
DELAY -= 10;
if (DELAY <= 10 ){
DELAY = 10;
}
}
else if (evt.getSource() == pauseResumeButton)
{
if(evt.getSource() == pauseResumeButton && !pause){
pauseResumeButton.setText(" Resume ");
timer.stop();
pause = true;
}
else if(evt.getSource() == pauseResumeButton && pause == true){
pauseResumeButton.setText(" Pause ");
timer.start();
pause = false;
}
}
else if (evt.getSource() == timer)
{
drawAnimation();
switchDove();
repaint();
}
}
/** Draws the dove in the dovePanel */
public void drawAnimation() {
Graphics page = dovePanel.getGraphics();
page.drawImage(dove,0,0,Color.WHITE,null);
}
/** The main method */
public static void main (String [] args) {
new DoveAnimator();
}
}

Answer 1

Yep it seems to be one of your repaint() calls. Take out your repaint() method call here:
else if (evt.getSource() == timer)
{
drawAnimation();
switchDove();
repaint();
It's confusing the program because you are already switching the doves. That's my best guess. I ran it and it seems to work though. Cheers!

Answer 2

Also I just noticed that the way you are adjusting your timer will yeild you no results. You need to use the command: timer.setDelay(newDelay); you can also put arguments in the parenthesis like timer.setDelay(DELAY -= 10);