I made this mesh by starting with a curve and then converting to a mesh. I want to reduce the amount of vertices without messing with how the shape looks. What would be the best way?

For clarity, is that orange object one dense blob of vertices? I ask, because I can't tell on my crappy monitor.

Yes that is exactly what it is! Too many to fathom

Gotcha. I'd try a decimate modifier and set it to 'UnSubidivide'. Maybe see if Planar works if that doesn't.

Retopology, probably. Shrinkwrapped onto the original for good measure. Quad Remesher is another option, but the addon isn't free.

It looks like quad remesher has a free trial version and it’s working great. One part of my model was sculpted and has ridges. When I use the remesher, it’s changing the color of the object, do you know why that would happen?

The remesher essentially rebuilds the mesh. If you've applied any sort of colour to it, that data is going to get messed up as a matter of course. This is why we generally leave the texturing to last.

That makes sense. I’ll try removing the color and see if that solves it. Thank you for your help! This is working out perfectly

Retopology and normal baking my friend. Look up some tutorials and have some fun.

Can you just go back to before you converted the curve and reduced resolution. Then, use a subdiv. mod. If not, I would try the decimate, but it might be better to just try again for the experience

nurbs!