Best approach to animating lots of images?

[pyeeyp]

I need to do simple 2D modelling of atoms & molecules (random walk motion etc) but am not sure of the best approach as there seems to be many ways of animating on a form.

My own simple experiment was to use (in very basic outline):

Dim graWindow As Graphics

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        graWindow = Me.CreateGraphics     'initialise "canvas"
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnGo_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click
        iterations = 0
        Do until iterations = maxIterations
             atoms = 0
             Do Until atoms = numberOfAtoms
                 <...code to calculate new "atom co-ords"...>
                 graWindow.FillEllipse(<...some colour...>,<...new "atom" co-ords & size data...>) 'put atom on screen
                 <...some sort of delay...>
                 graWindow.FillEllipse(<...background colour...>,<...new "atom" co-ords & size data....>)   'delete atom from screen
                 atoms += 1
              Loop
              iterations += 1
        Loop
    End Sub

However, I don't know if this is the accepted/standard way to animate things in VB. I've seen one code where animation was done (on a single image) using a picture box control to contain the drawn shape. But would this work for 500-1000 little picture boxes?

I'm (obviously) not experienced in VB 2012 so any detailed help on this would be great.

Thx