I need to make a few images for an arcade video game I'm making in Java. As of right now, I have drawings that animate, but there are two problems.

1. The drawings are horrible, and as a result, the game won't get enough attention.
2. It's a pain to have to change each coordinate for the drawing, as the drawings are fairly complex.

I'd like to use images. I feel they could solve my problem. They would look better than the drawings, and it would only have an x and a y coordinate, rather than the many coordinates I need for each drawing. So, in a sense, I have two questions.

1. Would images actually help? Would they solve my 2 problems? I just want to clarify.
2. How would I make these images. I don't think I can copy them off of the internet because I plan on publishing this game. So, is there any software where you can make your own images? (It has to be in an image type that Java can support. I'm working with java).

It also, as stated by the header, needs to be a 2D image; not 3D