I’m not sure I understand the difference.
Any help?
Uniform skins use a uniform number and shape of polygons to spread a “net” over the base form. An adaptive skin uses larger or smaller polygons to capture detail more efficiently over a base form.
Adaptive skins are preferred when performance/memory is at a premium (which often happens with very dense models or when animating the underlying form in another system such as a game engine.)
Some sculptors (such as myself) prefer more uniform meshes to work on because brush behavior is more consistent if the density of the deformed surface remains consistent, the reaction to the brush is more consistent. This often necessitates retopology prior to use in a game engine or animating, and can result in dense geometry where it isn’t needed.
To a degree, usage of one kind of skin versus another depends on your application of the model, your sculpting style, and the bugs you may encounter when generating the skin. 
-K
You may also want to watch the movies in ZClassroom.
In “Sketching With ZSpheres Basics” you’ll find two movies about Adaptive and Unfieid skin.
Thank you very much. That is precisely the type of answer I was searching for.
I am a very rudimentary zbrush user, seeking to improve…who am I kidding…seeking to actually use rather than just mess around with.
I had watched the Zclassroom videos -more than once- on the new zspheres and did not understand the difference. I do plow through manuals but they tend to make my head spin.
To sum it up I am finding “no” difference between sculpting with ZSpheres (not Zspheres II) set to “A” and using an “Adaptive Skin” unless I am doing something wrong which I probalby am. 
I pressed on the “Make Adapative Skin” button then I clear my stage and load the adaptive skin ZTool but it seems no different than if I just press “A” and sculpt using a ZSphere. How come I can sculpt on my ZSphere mesh if I press “A” and even slide the Adaptive Skin resolution slider up and down?
It appears the meshes geometry is based on the adaptive skin density, in other words, if my Adaptive Skin density is set to 3, then my geometry can’t be divided any higher than 3.
What is the difference between sculpting with a ZSphere set to “A” and an Adaptive Skin. they both seem identical. I can go up and down in the Adaptive Skin palette with both so I am confused?
Can someone please explain!
Thanks
In ZB 3.5, you can now sculpt interactively on the Zsphere adaptive skin preview, at multiple stages of subdivision. In terms of pure sculpting, there may actually be little difference between doing that and sculpting on the new mesh created by adaptive skin. But it will be limited in terms of other features that can be used on a normal mesh (like polypainting), so you are still going to want to convert it to a mesh at some point.
You can always re-bind that mesh to to a zsphere skeleton for posing at a later time.
Ok, well I am using 3.2 mac so they must have made it work there too!
Please tell me if I am doing this correctly. (PS - I have read the instructions in the wiki :))
When I press “Make Adaptive Skin” it makes a copy of the ZSphere mesh and put’s it in the ZTools. Correct? I then clear the stage and use this newly created Adaptive skin. Is this correct?
The only thing is I can’t make UV’s from the mesh as the UV palette is not in the Tools like it normally is. Is there something special I need to do to create UV’s with Adaptive Skins?
Also, somewhat related, is there a way to “Close” a ZSphere loop or attach one end to the other. (I’m using ZSpheres 1)
Thanks
Paint Guy
Actually, Im wrong. It appears you have always been able to do this (at least in 3.1). But you can lose the sculpting if you make any changes to the underlying Zspheres.
I’m going to stop answering questions on Zspheres…I just don’t work with them enough.
And yes, when you are ready to make a skin, you press “Make Adaptive Skin” , and that skin is added to the available tools as a new mesh.
Thanks Scott,
The only thing is I can’t make UV’s from the mesh as the UV palette is not in the Tools like it normally is. I can Polypaint, but is there something special I need to do to create UV’s with Adaptive Skins?
Also, somewhat related, is there a way to “Close” a ZSphere loop or attach one end to the other. (I’m using ZSpheres 1)
Thanks