Anybody with 3DS Max Skills?! Help a brotha out!

[Droidfish]

Ok sorry to come to droid forums with this problem but I can't find a solution and need human interaction. this is for work and I'm desperate with my deadline only a week away.

I'm a beginner/self taught max user and I have a question for anybody who's willing to listen.

I've created an outdoor scene of a large scale highway intersection and I need show an image a mountain range one side of my scene.

I have a material with a bitmap image of the mountain range applied to a plane that I have wrapped 360 degrees around my scene(go ahead and chuckle I'm a 3ds max noob)

These are my problems:

1) I have a sunlight system setup but it casts a shadow to one side of the plane that my mountain range bitmap is applied.

2) I have the bitmap material set to self illuminate but I can't for the life of me make it look bright it my scene(it's a daytime picture of the mountain range and I need to mimic daylight)

Basically I have camera paths setup that cover the entire 360 degrees of my scene and need it to include my mountain range and show blue sky everywhere else.

Anyhelp would be much appreciated

 

[Droidfish]

I know it's a stretch to expect Max help on droid forums but this place has a lot more eyes on it than the 3d modeling forum I use(creativecrash.com)

Anyone?

 

[Backnblack]

I used a demo version and I am lost at what you just said....lol

I use Autocad for work tho....

 

[Droidfish]

Yea autocad is my gravy, though I haven't opened it in months now that I'm working on this. I work for a civil engineering firm doing public sector stuff.

Max is freakin awesome tho, combined with a little photoshop skills the sky's the limit.