Vector-based images and documents, such as those written in SVG and Adobe Flash, can be converted into equivalent bitmap or other non-vector-based image by parsing the vector-based image to detect objects in the vector-based code. For each detected object, a separate bitmap of the object is created and information about where that image lies on the z-axis is retained. A separate bitmap image is created for each object, and the separate bitmap images are layered on top of one another, which is to say ordered along the z-axis in accordance with their z-axis coordinates. Animation of an image can be implemented by selectively rendering different ones of the bitmap images as transparent.