After, the multiresolution reshape how would you make it come back to low poly count as it had before Mutlires?
Wouldn't normal maps work too? I'm confused why you didn't go with normal map baking.
At this stage, I'm still trying to achieve maximum sculpted detail. Imagine a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is low poly geometry and 10 is super-high res detailed sculpture. Dynamic topology is only good to get to about a 5 before dyntopo slows down and isn't that workable. However multi-res sculpting can handle far more polygons than dyntopo. So I do a retopology at this stage (5) and continue sculpting more detail (pores, wrinkles, and veins) with multires. But during the retopo, my geometry backs down to level 2 or 3. So I use this salvage detail trick to get back to level 5.
Once I sculpt my character to level 10, then I will decide whether or not to bake normal maps to the low res mesh (for a game application) or leave it at a high level for offline rendering.
Does that clear things up?
It does clear it up!
Really appreciate the detailed (10) answer too!
So, production level characters which we see in animated movies have baked maps? My end goal is cinematic and not game, if you could answer that question of mine, that'd be great!
Maybe I should do the Piero course too.
Cinematic characters do not rely heavily on normal maps. To be most believable, they rely on true geometric detail. Subtle normal maps are sometimes used for super fine details but nowhere near the extent of game characters.
The character in this course is a cinematic example where the intention is to render the highest level of detail in the geometry. It's something like 19 million polygons if I remember correctly.
Thank you so much for this answer. This is going to be my desired workflow from now on.