Shooting projectile animation in C?

[tyler.dahle]

    if(kbhit()){
            getch();
            if(getch() == ' '){
                while(y9 < 770){
        readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball.gif", x9+10, y9+40, x9+40, y9+70);Sleep(80);
        putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
        readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball2.gif", x9+10, y9+40, x9+40, y9+70);Sleep(80);
        putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
        readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball3.gif", x9+10, y9+40, x9+40, y9+70);Sleep(80);
        putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
        y9++;}}
        if(y9 == 730){
            readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball_contact.gif", x9, y9, x9+30, y9+30);Sleep(80);
            putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
            readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball_contact2.gif", x9, y9, x9+30, y9+30);Sleep(80);
            putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
            readimagefile("PIX\\thunderball\\thunderball_contact3.gif", x9, y9, x9+30, y9+30);Sleep(80);
            putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
        }}
        break;

    default:
        readimagefile("PIX\\Character\\down_still.gif", x9, y9, x9+50, y9+50);
        putimage(0, 0, background, COPY_PUT);
    }
    }//end function

So, this is the code I have to animate my character shooting a lightning ball, then when it hits the wall it explodes with contact indicator. However, when I press space, it animates and slooooooooowy crawls towards the edge of the screen... Haha And during this slow crawl, it won't let me move my character. I am after getting this to move along the screen quickly and allow movement while doing so.

I feel my entire way of animating might be bad... This is the only way I have learned of doing it and I am using C since that is all I have learned (still learning) and I am very beginner so I don't know if I would understand how to animate something using some complex method...

But yeah if anyone has advice or suggestions on how to get it to animate properly I would love to hear it!

Thank you!

[Moschops]

Readiing the images from file is probably taking ages. You would do better to read them all beforehand and store in memory.

[tyler.dahle]

Ok, I am familiar with getimage and putimage. Is this what I want to do and just read them all before while loop (this animation is part of character function, which is in an infinite loop)?