my model keeps having the light go inside the mouth where i need it to be dark and in shadow. how do i make it so one side renders with light and the other side renders with black?
sounds like shadows are off.
make sure the lamp has shadows enabled, as well as the scene.
unless you’re using buffer shadow spot lamps, you need raytracing as well.
If what spacetug said doesn’t solve it, you could add a lamp where you want it to be dark, and in the lamp settings, select “negative” You can do all the same things, like change the energy and distance, but instead of adding light, it subtracts light.
the thing is…it’s on an object that has shadeless turned on.