CGTantra has an interview with Damir Martin about his scene ‘Giant Octopus’ created using ZBrush and 3dsMax/Mental Ray.

First I had it built from z spheres which are great tool for fast 3d sketching and developing rough forms. After i got basic form of octopus, I proceeded with more detail until it was complete. The problem is however that the topology you get from zspheres isn’t allways the best thing about zbrush, and thats the reason the model needed retopologizing. When I do retopo in zbrush, I draw provisional wire on the subdivided model using polypaint technique and only after that I continue with real retopo process. This method allows for some more thought out wireframe and it’s better for me as when I used to do retopo without this planing, I would end up with some messy solutions most of the times before.

via CGTantra.com – Making of Giant Octopus by Damir Martin.