I think bump maps work in black and white whereas normal maps are in RGB colour space.. Ive not long been having a little play with zbrush, and in that you make normal maps to put in the bump slot of maya shaders, but you use the maps as 'tangent space normals', rather than 'bump'. Technically what the difference is i dont really know either.

The dragon is coming on slowly. Its gone in a direction of a whole scene which i hadnt really intended, and im not sure if im really into it, but im carrying on. might go back to one of the earlier stages at some point. Its under dino_chick in the wip section. It was originally kind of a dinosaur, until, i think it was stwert on here, said it was more like a dragon, so technically, thats what it now is..!..if thats any indication into how much preplanning has gone into it!