How much detail do I retail when retopologizing?

TurtleLearns3D

Hi guys, this is my first rodeo in retopology, and I'm very lost. I've sculpted a high poly, and now I need to make it less dense so I can easily rig and animate. My problem is that I don't know how much detail should be retained. For example, my little guy has raised spots on his skin. Should I make a circular edge flow around them since they are raised higher than the rest of the skin, or do I ignore them?  Is there a rule of thumb for how granular you need to be for retopologizing? 

I'm also confused about how to bake the details since I've only used substance for that. I painted my textures in ZBrush and would like to keep those instead of going into substance painter. Is there a better way to bake the higher detail while keeping the textures from ZBrush? 

I appreciate any thoughts tut suggestions! I feel like a stressed toddler right now, lol. 

Here are pictures of those spots. 

 

fmorera

Hi @TurtleLearns3D, I think retopology has to retain the shape and it will depend on the proximity/size of the detail and efficiency.
As you are doing retopo I'll assume you're looking for efficiency. 
For that kind of detail (the spots) I'd probably ignore them on the retopology and bake the detail. Be aware that they will flatten a bit when baked so, probably you'll have to exaggerate them so the normal map works better.

TurtleLearns3D

@fmorera What a relief, lol. I've been trying to wrap my brain around how to tie it in with the rest of the edge flow. Thanks for the help!