Here's a thought. Haven't tryed it, but it should work (may not be the best solution).
Insert a tab control on your form. Set the "BackStyle" property to "Transparent" and set the "Style" property to "None". Now, suppose you have 3 objects (pictures or whatever). Insert the 3 controls onto the 1st tab so that object A is on top of B which is on top of C. On the 2nd tab, insert object B which is on top of C which is on top A. On the 3rd tab, have C on top of A on top of B. Programatically, you can select tab 1, 2 or 3 depending on which view you want.
To place the objects on the different tabs, just select all 3 objects, press ctrl+C and then paste them onto the other tabs, then set the z order (send to back, etc)
This way may run a little slow, but won't know until you try it.
Tuffer, as far as you splash screen goes, I would create a gif file that does what I want and then insert the gif file onto my form.