So, the question is simple: How do I fix this?
Here is the model: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2kzoftrj60s6j5/Game%20-%20Mushroom.blend?dl=0
This might be one of those cases where adjusting your Normals helps. I’ve had good luck with Mesh -> Normals -> Set From Faces in the past.
I don’t know if this solution is adequate and I don’t know if it would address the root of the problem.
I believe it’s the so-called terminator effect (look it up). Coarse meshes show that kind of artifacts at spots where directed light hits it at grazing angles (the border between lit and shadowed areas). Smooth normals is not sufficient to fix it. You likely will only get rid of it by adding a subdiv modifier to get an actually smoother surface.
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This did not help but thx for reply.
This only added a lot of blue lines to the mesh (the arms mostly).
It did smoothen out the shading issue under the mouth though, but not entirely.
In this case, Subdiv will fix the bottom part of the mesh and adding cuts around the mouth might help. I would combine the strategy of adding geometry plus maybe seeing if playing with the normals, (in just one area of the mesh, not all of it), works for you.
I’m still getting the light at the bottom right corner, but I think it’s just normal bounced light.
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Yeah the subdivision “hides” the problem by making it smaller, but that implies that I need to rework the mouth of the character and it having a **** ton of unnecessary vertices. But thanks for reply.
I have tried many cut face shapes around the mouth; nothing I tried fixed the shadow and “light reflectance” issue. And It can’t be light reflection (?) as it’s only 4 bounces… or idk…
Omgold noted it to be the Terminator Effect, which it is as I looked it up more but there are none known issues except for rendering in Eevee or Blender render.
I suppose the model is simply Cursed. 
Though, just being simple with the lighting makes the render look passable.
Subdiv make the problem smaller with each subdiv level, yes. But honestly at 3 levels of subdivisions it becomes invisible to me.
Next get rid of the internal faces connected above and below the mouth (back of the oral cavity assume). These destroy the normals and smooth subdiv. If you need the faces, disconnect them from the main mesh.
Finally you may want to clean up the mesh topology at the mouth. Yes, for this part you will need some extra vertices and edges, to get rid of the ngons and highly distorted faces near the corners of the mouth. I also love low-poly, and I know saving geometry is fun (somehow), but a pitfall certainly is to overdo that. Sometimes you simply need a little bit more geometry to have enough control over the mesh.
If you say your attempts did not succeed, try to find tutorials/guides about best practices of low-poly topology. A (very) short list of the most important things to look for:
- avoid higher order ngons (faces with more than 5 vertices)
- avoid higher order poles (vertices with more than 5 edges)
- do not stretch faces overly (make them roughly equal size in both directions)
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oh my…
I managed to fix it by doing the following:
- Dettach the inside-mouth part that was attached above and below the mouth.
- Flip Normals and Recalculate them, as they were all (blue line) pointing inside the model.
Now my only minor issue is the terminator effect that is only visible if using the SUN light setting for some reason. I gave the world sky a sky texture (Sky node) and added a light near its face, which is the picture result you see on my reply to markholley above.
Sorry for wasting your time, but I will take your tips with me for the future!
Mouth Result:
