The work flow that I have settled on is to make the low poly version first and UV map it.
I then subdivided, sculpt and add details. I do all of this in Wings3d.
Then I take both high and low poly models into XNormal to bake the high poly detail on to the normal maps.
I try to keep my edge flow nice in the low poly so when I subdivide I still have nice edge flow and my UV maps line up.
However there is always some retopology to do but this keeps it to a minimum.
Originally I made the high poly version and used meshlab to decimate.
The "Quadric Edge collapse Decimation" filter works quite well in meshlab.
In my experience it seems to preserve edge flow well. I would then bring it back into wings3d for the final touches.
When I researched Xnormal and what other artists where doing it seems most of them make the low poly first.
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WindowsXP SP3,Vista,Windows 7 SP1, DBpro v7.7RC7
Stab In The Dark Editor
The coffee is lovely dark and deep,and I have code to write before I sleep.