What I have done this week:
I have finished a complex wood model called Paiwei, which is for commemorates the dead of my grandfather. I begin with an alpha texture in the Zbrush and as I predicted, the processing is really challengeable and funny.
In the beginning, I planned to sculpture tiny detail in a whole simple cube however, the result is not good. Because it looks heavy such as the below picture.
So I changed the old method, I divide the polygon into three-layer. By adjusting the position and scale to make some holes that make the model look more hollow.
Then I use the polymesh to reduce the number of the polygon. Once limit the face number less than 40,000, I export the low-level model to Maya and prepare to finish the UV map. I want to bake the complex detail into a low-level model so the UV is necessary. When these steps are all done, the rendering picture such as below in Maya.
Finally, I use the substance painter and Photoshop to paint the texture. Because the UV map is auto-created by Maya, it is easier to directly paint in the 3d Model.