Bizzare shadows - not sure how to fix.

[Anonymous]

Hi All, 

Im still a little green and fresh when it comes to high poly modelling (well even low poly modelling!).

i have created a basic shape (image attached) however when rendering, or just wiewing as "realistic" or "shaded" i get these wierd shadows on almost anything i model.

i dont seem to have clicked anything and my 3ds max is essentially all set to default so havent tweaked anything to cause this. 

Am i missing something? or have i forgotten to turn something off or on?.

any help would be amazing, thanks ever so much all!. 

(ps: havent added any lights to the scene at all, just running of a totally scratch "new scene" and started this right away)

[Anonymous]

hi, often these soft and hard shadows are caused by the default lighting - if you select views > viewport config > lighting and shadows tab - you'll see that 

the default lighting uses 2 default lights - change this to 1 light and more often than not those annoying shadows will disappear.

[Anonymous]

you sir, are a  gentleman and a  scholar!

solved it right away!. those shadows were cringing me out for god knows how long but all looks perfect now. 

Really appreciate the speedy reply too!

All the best!

[kgokhangurbuz]

This also may be caused by smoothing groups just for further information.

Please check your smoothing groups if you still get them in your renderings.

[Anonymous]

I hadnt thought about that either!,

havent really delved into smoothing groups and how they even work so i will make sure  to check that out too.

Thanks ever so much kgokhangurbuz.

[kgokhangurbuz · Accepted solution]

Hi;

Here's a post by me about basics of smoothing groups: 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/modeling/plane-looks-curved-when-it-should-be-flat-shadow-not-appearin...

If you need further information, please ask.

Regards;