Merging JPanels

[PhiberOptik]

Hey guys,

I have two JPanels for my game, one jpanel shows my character, informational text and the other shows the map which is made up of a tileset.

Is there anyway I can show the map behind the character and information without merging the two java files?

the Map jpanel uses PaintComponent() and the Character jpanel uses paint()

Thanks PO

[PhiberOptik]

A little update:
So heres what my two panels look like (minus my the scaling difference)
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5541/problemzf.png
jpanel1 has the character & info. I want to take jpanel2 (which draws the map) and display it behind jpanel1 so the character can run around on top of the picture.

Originally I tried making it so jpanel1 doesn't draw a background
with setOpaque(false); and then in the frame calling them in order of appearance ie:

jPanel2 p2 = new jPanel2();
add(p2);
jPanel1 p1 = new jPanel1();
add(p1);

but that didn't work.

I'm very lost. I don't have a lot of experience with GUI's.

sidenote:
please keep in mind that jPanel2 is a tileset, so its not as easy as just trying to drop it into the jpanel1 paint() method

Thanks for your help!
PO

[cale.macdonald]

I would look at using a layered pane(http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/swing/JLayeredPane.html). One layer for the background and one layer for the character.