To use a media tracker, create an instance of MediaTracker and call its addImage method for each image to be tracked. In addition, each image can be assigned a unique identifier. This identifier controls the priority order in which the images are fetched. It can also be used to identify unique subsets of the images that can be waited on independently. Images with a lower ID are loaded in preference to those with a higher ID number.

Tracking an animated image might not always be useful due to the multi-part nature of animated image loading and painting, but it is supported. MediaTracker treats an animated image as completely loaded when the first frame is completely loaded. At that point, the MediaTracker signals any waiters that the image is completely loaded. If no ImageObservers are observing the image when the first frame has finished loading, the image might flush itself to conserve resources (see Image.flush()).

Here is an example of using MediaTracker:

 import java.applet.Applet;
 import java.awt.Color;
 import java.awt.Image;
 import java.awt.Graphics;
 import java.awt.MediaTracker;

 public class ImageBlaster extends Applet implements Runnable {
      MediaTracker tracker;
      Image bg;
      Image anim[] = new Image[5];
      int index;
      Thread animator;

      // Get the images for the background (id == 0)
      // and the animation frames (id == 1)
      // and add them to the MediaTracker
      public void init() {
          tracker = new MediaTracker(this);
          bg = getImage(getDocumentBase(),
                  "images/background.gif");
          tracker.addImage(bg, 0);
          for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
              anim[i] = getImage(getDocumentBase(),
                      "images/anim"+i+".gif");
              tracker.addImage(anim[i], 1);
          }
      }

      // Start the animation thread.
      public void start() {
          animator = new Thread(this);
          animator.start();
      }

      // Stop the animation thread.
      public void stop() {
          animator = null;
      }

      // Run the animation thread.
      // First wait for the background image to fully load
      // and paint.  Then wait for all of the animation
      // frames to finish loading. Finally, loop and
      // increment the animation frame index.
      public void run() {
          try {
              tracker.waitForID(0);
              tracker.waitForID(1);
          } catch (InterruptedException e) {
              return;
          }
          Thread me = Thread.currentThread();
          while (animator == me) {
              try {
                  Thread.sleep(100);
              } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                  break;
              }
              synchronized (this) {
                  index++;
                  if (index >= anim.length) {
                      index = 0;
                  }
              }
              repaint();
          }
      }

      // The background image fills the frame so we
      // don't need to clear the applet on repaints.
      // Just call the paint method.
      public void update(Graphics g) {
          paint(g);
      }

      // Paint a large red rectangle if there are any errors
      // loading the images.  Otherwise always paint the
      // background so that it appears incrementally as it
      // is loading.  Finally, only paint the current animation
      // frame if all of the frames (id == 1) are done loading,
      // so that we don't get partial animations.
      public void paint(Graphics g) {
          if ((tracker.statusAll(false) & MediaTracker.ERRORED) != 0) {
              g.setColor(Color.red);
              g.fillRect(0, 0, size().width, size().height);
              return;
          }
          g.drawImage(bg, 0, 0, this);
          if (tracker.statusID(1, false) == MediaTracker.COMPLETE) {
              g.drawImage(anim[index], 10, 10, this);
          }
      }
 }