Hello Headwax, and thank you. Actually, I've only used bumpmaps here because the details tend to be very close to the surface, or inset and most angles I would render at would not betray the bumpmap relief as not being actual 3D. If I decide to zoom in for a closer shot I might go ahead and convert my bumps into normal maps with CrazyBump or xNormal, or somesuch. I'm really excited that Carrara8 is incorporating normal maps into its core functionality. I haven't tried painting any normal maps within Carrara yet.
  Thank you Analog. As I understand it, an n gon is a polygon with any number of sides more than 4.
Of course 4 sides make a "quad", which is the ideal. I should have said co-planar, instead of "planar".
Co-planar just means polys that share the same flat surface.
Thank you Rexus.