Zbrush and armour - Help

Jakekiefer

Hi there! First time post here, I'm currently creating my character (Viking) and would love to know how you guys would go about this  
 
Current stage..


Reference. 



I'm wanting to create the layered look yet after this I have to retopologise such a thing to low poly. How would you go about this? I'm really clueless overall

musashidan

The normal map will take care of the details once you ensure that the retop mesh has the major forms and silhouette in place. It used to be that the low-poly would be retopo ed as a contiguous mesh but, more and more characters like this are retopo ed in multiple parts. 

Jakekiefer

Ah i see, would this be better made by insert mesh brushes places individually or sculpted by hand? Both seem very time consuming

Scruples

You might consider going directly to lowpoly (hard to even call it that anymore) and using a lot of repeating textures/geometry to keep the detail high.

I'd suggest looking at CD Project's Witcher 3 armor they have really done a masterful job of mixing detail maps with unique textures and repeating geometry.