@ m4dcow: Ahh, i figured as much but was not quite sure that that would actually have an affect to the AO. Tahnks for pointing it out. I will put the model back into place and then re-bake... i was dumb enough to not set a Time Line so i cant go back to how it was before Exploding :P bad habits i guess. @ GeeDave:…
You don't tell which method you used ? A complete map will also bake the grey of your diffuse material by default. Haven't read the all tutorial, but he maybe pushes the self_illumination to 100% to avoid that. The ambient occlusion render element is ok, but i rather like to set it in the material, to make quick control…
Your lightmap looks dark all round to begin with, so there's a problem right off the bat. If you want greater control though, you should absolutely be rendering it separately and doing the merge in something like photoshop (on a multiplied layer). Personally, for my AO bakes I will switch to MentalRay and use the Ambient…