well, the problem is this… i have it not smoothed, but then when i try and smooth it it makes those strange shadows. (its a wolf by the way) does anyone know how to fix this?
Those strange shadows are there because you have some faces that have inverted normals, and these are not visible if your Draw Type is set to Solid and your 3D view rendering is set to solid too.
Getting the face rendering set to Smooth will always reveal them
Into Edit mode, you should fix that by selecting the whole model and Mesh -> Normals -> Recalculate Outside or press CTRL+N and confirm.
It should fix it.
In the case of very complex models, this may not work well, and you should then select all the faces that you see with inverted normals and Mesh->Normals-Flip
There is a quick way to “see” the problem face. Simply switch on Textured view port and look around the model. If there is any reversed face, it will appear as a “hole.”
that fixed it- thanks!