Retopology in Zbrush3
polycounter lvl 18
It was a bit of a convoluted discovery phase, but I've got it down now and the workflow is pretty straightforward. I'll get around to posting pictures eventually. 
And I've got to refine the text as well, haven't got a lot of experience writing tutorials yet.
Prep work:
1. Load the tool you want to topologize.
2. While in edit mode, click on the ZSphere tool. This will make a ZSphere appear in place of your model - don't panic!
3. Under the 'Rigging' palette, click on 'Bind Mesh' and from the popup, select the tool you want to build a new mesh around.
4. Uner the 'Topology' palette, click on 'Edit Topology'. This will make the base mesh visible, and you can start laying down the new topology.
Topologizing:
5. Click anywhere on the sculpt to lay down the first vertex. Turn on X symmetry before doing this, or start from the middle. The new vert will be highlighted in a red circle.
6. Your next click will lay down a second vertex, which will connect with an edge to the previous one. The new vertex will be highlighted in red, which means the next vertex you lay down will connect to it. You can alt-click to erase verts.
You can use the move tool to adjust the placement of the verts, however ZB does a lousy job of clinging to the base sculpt's surface (maybe there is a setting I am unaware of?). But no worries, you can always shrink wrap it in your 3D package later.
6. You can preview the mesh so far by pressing 'A', or the Adaptive Skin preview. You should turn down the adaptive skin's density to 1.
7. Continue building edges until you have your completed mesh. Note that you can arbitrality lay down vertices on other parts of the base sculpt by deselecting the active vertex and using the draw tool on another portion of the sculpt.
8. When you are done, exit 'Edit Topology' mode.
Finishing up.
9. Now you can continue sculpting on your new clean mesh, or export this for normal map baking using Tool > Export.
And I've got to refine the text as well, haven't got a lot of experience writing tutorials yet.Prep work:
1. Load the tool you want to topologize.
2. While in edit mode, click on the ZSphere tool. This will make a ZSphere appear in place of your model - don't panic!
3. Under the 'Rigging' palette, click on 'Bind Mesh' and from the popup, select the tool you want to build a new mesh around.
4. Uner the 'Topology' palette, click on 'Edit Topology'. This will make the base mesh visible, and you can start laying down the new topology.
Topologizing:
5. Click anywhere on the sculpt to lay down the first vertex. Turn on X symmetry before doing this, or start from the middle. The new vert will be highlighted in a red circle.
6. Your next click will lay down a second vertex, which will connect with an edge to the previous one. The new vertex will be highlighted in red, which means the next vertex you lay down will connect to it. You can alt-click to erase verts.
You can use the move tool to adjust the placement of the verts, however ZB does a lousy job of clinging to the base sculpt's surface (maybe there is a setting I am unaware of?). But no worries, you can always shrink wrap it in your 3D package later.
6. You can preview the mesh so far by pressing 'A', or the Adaptive Skin preview. You should turn down the adaptive skin's density to 1.
7. Continue building edges until you have your completed mesh. Note that you can arbitrality lay down vertices on other parts of the base sculpt by deselecting the active vertex and using the draw tool on another portion of the sculpt.
8. When you are done, exit 'Edit Topology' mode.
Finishing up.
9. Now you can continue sculpting on your new clean mesh, or export this for normal map baking using Tool > Export.
Replies
My normal workflow would be to reimport my new mesh as a subtoool, that way you can project the high detail on to your new mesh.
i just fix my new mesh in max rather than pissing about with the tools in zbrush, too much hassle
In any case, Z's retopo tools are extremly easy to use, I just thought some folks might have had trouble getting to them...for all I know, someone's already written a much clearer tutorial over on ZB Central
http://jcappelletti.freehostia.com/z3tut01/
I can't bothered to even use keybopard shortcuts:)