OK, this might be a bit of a general question, but... I started sculpting some 2 months ago. I think I'm now able to block out my shapes and refine them to something presentable, but I'm still struggling with sculpting fine detail. Generally, one of two things happen:
a) I'm in 'Subdivide Collapse' mode and as I try to smooth things out, I erase most of the detail I just sculpted in (no matter how low the smooth brush settings are).
b) I'm in 'Subdivide Edges' mode and I have a slightly better time retaining the details, only my mesh starts to tear up and create artifacts, and I end up with holes that I'm not able to re-generate.
I do realize that there isn't a magical technique I can use, but if some of you were struggling with the same stuff, you might be able to share some tips on what worked in your scenes.
This is definitely tricky! One thing I'd recommend is not getting into the super fine details until after retopology. That way you can use a multi-resolution modifier for sculpting and quickly switch between high and low levels of detail. You won't be able to use dynamic subdivision for that part, but when it comes to those fine details you'll want the geometry to match the detail scale anyway.
But isn't retopology a low-res recreation of your high-res sculpt? It sounds a kinda weird to reduce the details via retopology and then use that to add more details. Or maybe I just got this wrong?
Yes, that's how I've been using retopology myself until now. I create a sculpture and then the retopologized low-res mesh. Afterwards, I bake a normal map and apply it to the low-res mesh. But while this approach produces decent results, it has its limitations. And I still need to be able to create those detailed sculptures in the first place. Multi-resolution modifier sounds like a good suggestion and I'll definitely have a look at it when I'm sculpting again.
in a more general way think of retopology as...
1. creating quaded geometry out of especially dynotopo sculpt...
2. retopo can be very dense mesh (not limited to lo poly)
3. rerouting of edge loops for better deformation (animation)...
hope this helps...
:D