"You know, there are not many studios, from Dreamworks/Pixar on down to the one-person desktop, animating hyper-realism in-close" I'm not sure I get this, Operaguy. Surely there have been in-close shots during the FinalFantasy movies if I recall correctly that were extremely realistic. Why would anyone need to maintain an extreme close-up shot for longer than a few seconds during the course of telling a story anyway? Do you intend to shoot your entire movie with the camera on top of the character's faces and hair the whole time? As far as resolving fine details, I'm not sure I know of any renderers that aren't capable of doing that. If render settings are adequate, then details should be there.