Although it's far from the same, as for the quality of the effect, I've used a similar method to make my skins more realistic..

In other words, I've used a high poly model with a 'normal quality' skin, and made screenshots from that high-poly model from different angles.. Applied those 'screenshot skins' to my low poly model, and now it has got way more detail than it would have with the usual skinning method... Especially the shadow parts and depth parts are really a lot better, other detail also depends on your own skin's quality of course.. Only problem is that it is quite time consuming to make things perfect.

@Drew which engine do you mean with unreal3's engine?

Cheers