al, i'm using 3dstudio max 6.01 and photoshop cs. you pretty much summed up what i'm doing. lots of layers...
as far as turning them into vector shapes, i'm pretty sure that i could, but i'm really not man enough...ha! j/k
i'm really trying to develop this out more, so you'll have to excuse the baby steps in my work. haven't quite got a hand of illustrator as of yet, either.
glad you like the direction i'm heading in. thanks for the compliments.
as for the 3d stuff for macs...ugh. i tried to help Joker out with this, but was unable. i'm using a pc and i thought he was until i sent him the cd's...heh. ahh! lightwave, maybe. i know there's a version of maya out for macs, but the version i see on kazaa seems to be pc. gah!
anyway, i'll post more later. maybe tonight the insomnia will drive me to do something different with my renderings?
continue babbling.