I think I finally got it to work. See: https://cgcookie.com/exercise_submissions/26152 or https://skfb.ly/o6IMq
You’re absolutely dead on, @silentheart00 – you have to play around in their lighting and materials section to get your model to look just so. I stripped everything from the last Blender file and uploaded only the shark. As you had written, it loaded in with the Emission setting on full blast, which is why it looked so blown out. I adjusted a few settings – took me about a half-hour, but I think it look acceptable.
Thanks for the input!