Getting a high res texture transferred to a cleaned up model

[arumiat]

Hi all,

I have a model with a high res texture applied to it.
I have duplicated this model and ‘cleaned it up’ using various techniques including dynamesh.
I would now like to get this original high res texture applied to the new cleaned up model.

I know that I can take texture → polypaint original model → project color to new model → generate texture from new model

Is there another workflow to do this? Can I UV the new cleaned up model and somehow project the texture direct? (I imagine not). I am just wanting to get the absolute highest quality texture possible on the new model and worry that the steps in-between will lose some detail.

If there is not an alternative workflow, any tips for making sure the quality of the texture using the polypaint color workflow is as high as possible? Divide up the cleanup mesh into as high as possible polycount?

Thanks in advance,
A

[arumiat]

As an example, using the texture → polypaint → transfer polypaint → texture workflow, there is a slight decrease in quality of texture:

Subtle, but I am a stickler for such things. Any tips to improve quality, if this is the best/ only workflow? Original model had 32million polys, and the one transferred to had 26 million - to divide that one further I was getting a system warning.

PS I also attach links to external image hosting here as images may be less compressed than on the forums: