yep, the best way to learn in illustrator is just to play around with it. Hand drawn always yields the best results but if you cant or wont then you can use autotrace.

If you need some help ill have a go at vectorising the image when i get a spare minute...

Remember: most of the time it's not worth doing opacity masks in illustrator because they take a long time to learn how to do them properly (because it's a completely different concept to photoshop) so just import the vector into photoshop as a smart object and do the opacity mask work in photoshop (quicker and easier)

EDIT:
It turns out I did have a spare moment


just let me know if you want the file or large pic it might save you a bit of frustration

I only included the small version because I didn't know if this was one of those things you would want to do on your own, I didn't want to tread on anyones toes

Watch out because after you use the pathfinder tools (like Divide (which is probably the most useful tool) Crop etc.), the objects will be grouped (but they have been separated). Right-click the image and click ungroup to ungroup them.

Again, that said, I would use Divide over the shape mode shown here because the shape mode won't work in all circumstances, but that's just personal choice.

WOW! That is awesome armogeden! I cannot believe how great that looks. You have given me a lot of motivation with it now. Hold that file but let me see what happens. That is really great looking!
Mikey you rock too! Did your tutorial and it worked perfectly!! I always have self taught myself but when I keep fighting with things I forget to ask for help and just kind of go back to PS but now I am fired up. The only thing I ever did with pathfinder is shut it or move it out of my way.
Thank you both. This is really turning into an awesome forum (for me anyway).

No probs MG

I think anyone can benefit from this so here is the gears file, and a full explanation about how it was made

http://www.mediafire.com/?6zj4qgud4m5

I just did this with a custom gradient radial, then I used the knife tool and flag warp to get this effect. copied it once and rotated 180 degrees. also I used the outline in the path finder to get the thin stroke.

great depth! Don't understand half of what you said but I'm enjoying the look and in time I hope to speak your language.
Thanks again for your help today!

personally to have a vector format i use flash 8 and some tutorials from CartoonSmart.

if you only want to create a vector look you can use PS use this tutorial i think i found the link to it on these forums somewhere...

http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-comicbook.html

heres something i did following it:

no drawing required

this will leave the format as raterized or whatever normal photos are.