Houdini on the Spot: Power User Tips and Techniques Book

A superb book for anybody who is interested in programming 2D graphics in Java via the AWT and Java2D APIs. Covers the graphics pipeline, rendering mechanics, some threading and scheduling issues, basic animations, effects tricks (simulated shading, reflection, use of gradients, etc.), and lots of solid, practical advice and performance tips. Also good advice on when and where each of these things is actually useful in a UI, rather than obtrusive.

The authors are key players in the design of these APIs, so the have the chops to write about this material authoritatively, but they do so without becoming bogged down in erudition or self-justification (compare, say, to Bjarne Stroustrup's The C++ Programming Language). Accessible writing style and medium-extended examples. Some Amazon reviewers were frustrated with the downloadable code examples, but I can't speak to that, as I haven't tried them. I did find the code examples in the text fairly straightforward to work from and extend.