Character Modeling Process - Discussion

SuPa-

So I've been wondering what people might consider the best process of developing a character. I've seen a few different ways people ago about doing this:

-Making a detailed, highpoly base mesh in a 3D Modeling program that is then exported to ZBrush/Mudbox for sculpting. Then the high poly is retopologized for use as the final mesh. This to me seems like a good method
-Making a blocky base mesh that is exported to Mudbox/Zbrush for sculpting, then retopologized to make the final mesh/do another sculpting pass
-Creating/blocking out a character in different pieces in ZBrush, retopologizing, reprojecting, sculpting more, then retopologizing for the final mesh (or something like that). This method also sounds pretty good too
-Starting a sculpt from ZSpheres then retoplogizing for the final mesh

So basically, I'm curious as to what people's processes might be and what they consider the best/most efficient

Sorry if this discussion has been made before or anything

Ihazard

I take a base mesh and, depending on what I'm making, alter the proportions in ZBrush first before importing back into Max, there I create the majority of clothing/items, I mostly clone/shell stuff, that with a combination of spline modelling. I had the habit of jumping into sculpting too quickly when there wasn't enough detail in the modelling program done, now I've gone back to basics and just model all the stuff that goes on the model first, I find it more motivating to get to the fun part after

Then I obviously sculpt what's needed, folds and details, then for the low poly I sometimes use the lowest level geometry from zbrush for speed, but then retopo in zbrush more complex pieces/pieces which need more specific detail on the low and combine the two in max, I then use a combination of Unfold3d and Max unwrapping, then on to textures

PolyHertz

This is another one of those 'depends' sort of questions. For me its something like this:

traditional character, games: Common workflow of 1. block in 3d app, 2. sculpt, 3. retopo for low.
traditional character, render: 1. block in 3d app, 2. sculpt, 3. retopo high, 4. continue sculpt, 5. either use retopo or a derivative for render.
Strange anatomy (extra limbs and such): 1. ZSpheres block out, 2. Optimize zsphere block in 3d app, 3. sculpt, etc.

Sculptris may change some of this in the future as its feature set improves, but these are the ways I normally do things atm.