Sorry if this is a very stupid question but I need help.

I need to find out how to re-paint an item while keeping the texture of the orginal item. Let me give an example

I have to make a MOCKUP of signage on a car.  I want to put a photo on the door of the car but I need the orginal bends and shades of the car doer as the metal bends to show in the photo otherwise it is just a flat photo.

The stupid way to do it is to cut the door out, copy and paste and then "fill" it with the photo or texture.  the problem with that is however, I have to set the overlay transparency to see the bends and folds of the door at the bottom and by that time the overlay image is so light you cannot see it.

I know there is a way with the mask command but have very little knowledge of how to use the mask.  

I know who to trace the item with the lassoo tool and copy and paste to create a duplicate. 

Another problem is I do not know how to use that "mask" to select a fill from a photo for example.  I know there is a way to put the mask over a background image and only select the piece of the background image that is "showing" through the mask.

Please help.  I need to do the artwork for a bakkie.

LAST AND BIGGEST PROBLEM.

I need to do the demo but if the client wants the art work, I have to give it to them in Corel draw becuase they need it as a vector they can enlage to fit the vehicle.  Usually I work in corel and the use the EDIT BITMAP command to get the photo of the vehicle into PhotoPaint where I have to do the whole mask thing. 

Once I close photopaint and send it back to corel, the new overlays etc has become part of the image which I can of course not give to the printers.  they need the data they have to print without the vehicle in the background.  I am stumped by this one.

Sorry if this is amateur questions but I am still learning.

Dominic

The first thing is with your artwork: create it as a vector and keep it as a vector. How it looks once on the car is a mock-up and relatively simple to achieve.

If you want to work with the vector as-if it is on the door, then I would create a new layer, dump the photo on it, use the interactive transparency to make a “uniform” “Multiply” with the slider dragged to zero. Then lock this layer from editing. Go back to the first layer and draw whatever on it.

You don't need/use masks in vectors. If you want smooth fills and blends; use radial fills, blends, contours and mesh-fills. If you want to shape objects, node-edit them or use the trim/weld tools.

Hope this helps.

~Gadget~

skyedancer:

I need to do the demo but if the client wants the art work, I have to give it to them in Corel draw becuase they need it as a vector they can enlarge to fit the vehicle.

Some photos can be converted to vector, but some cannot, because they look horrible. In this case you need to take the photo with enough resolution to print fine when enlarged to door size.

skyedancer:

Once I close photopaint and send it back to corel, the new overlays etc has become part of the image which I can of course not give to the printers.

If you don't combine object/layers with background in PhotoPaint, they will import into DRAW as independent objects. Probably, they are grouped. You can ungroup them. When you select it DRAW Status Bar will tell you what you have selected.

skyedancer:

I want to put a photo on the door of the car but I need the original bends and shades of the car doer as the metal bends to show in the photo otherwise it is just a flat photo.

You could use the Shear Effect or perhaps the Mesh Wrap Effect both under the Distort Effects.