Hello all. I am quite new to Blender rendering (my knowledge is limited to Cycles preview renders using simple materials) and I would like to replicate a handy rendering and baking trick I previously achieved in Max. The idea is to bake environment maps onto a model in order to simulate complex materials, something that proves to be very useful when dealing with game engines with limited rendering.
Here is an example. Here I am using two environment maps, one representing gold and another representing gun metal. (in my setup I am using environments maps stored in cylindrical format, but I would be fine with using a matcaps/lit sphere format since converting between the two in Photoshop is trivial). The reflections are applied to the model, and can then be baked to texture. If I am not mistaken the baker uses the current viewport camera as a point of reference for the environment baking. As an icing on the cake I am also blending in an AO pass, but that of course is not a requirement since it can be done later directly on the texture.
Now my understanding is that Cycles baking can do all this, but my attempts have not been successful probably because I am not using the right kind of projection or missing some setting. What is the proper way to achieve such a bake ?
Thank you for you help !