Blender can do texture baking quite nicely. It's simply a matter of placing lights in the scene, adjusting them, and then baking onto an object through a modifier.
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And as far as tutorials, I'm sure there are plenty scattered around. In general though, try to think of your scene and what kind of lighting it will have. If someone is pointing a light in a specific direction, then add a directional light in blender. You can also use objects(cubes, spheres, etc.) to occlude light where you would not want it to pass through. Of course, also remember you can fire up GIMP(another free program) to tweak the texture after it has been baked, to get the final feel just right on your model.
A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly Yellow)