I wish that the standard
Java API provided more tools for animation (something akin to Flash would be great!). Unfortunately, there is nothing that allows you to simply describe a path for a sprite to follow - at least there is nothing that I've yet run across (I'd love to be wrong). You have to move the image the hard way - from point to point to point.
I would imagine that more than one person has devised an animation API that does provide the desired functionality. I'd recommend a search on
google. If you ever do find something, or if you write something yourself, do let us know, won't you?
Good Luck.