I'm actualy using chunky as external render engine but I working on relearning blender coz I stopped at the last real version ( 2.49a ) and the 2.6x is just unreadable and impossible to use to resume in one word : shit. But if I manage to get a proper config for it to render scene with cycle, I will not use my cpu anymore to render but my GPU which is a ultra high powerful one ( my i7 2600k cpu is also ultra powerfull ).
And for the cloud, you just need some skills with aditing a bit an image with nodes in 3d software then reload it in your render engine. =p
You use blender? As in...Blender 3D? The one where if you open a new project you sit and stare at a cube and ask yourself if you've never done anything with it before "how the heck am I supposed to make a 3D character with this?" That Blender?
The blender 3D I'm always using for modeling is 2.49a with is the simpliest and the best one to do stuff. GUI is ultra friendly and 100% customisable. You can divide your screen where you want and tell what you want this part showing. Tools are easy to access and find and understand. But the only thing I never really tried hard to learn is modeling character without 3 pic of it. Cuz if you have a pic front, side and top, you basically can modelise your character without any effort =p