yes indeed. i use z-brush ' i can create all my own normal maps from high polygon models i make in z-brush and also paint my diffuse maps in photoshop.'
my pipeline tends to be create highpoly using max/and or z-brush, use decimator to bring high poly down and back into max, then build the low poly using high poly as a template, unwrap the low poly and bake the normal maps off the high poly in max using render to texture.