Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 8/25/2008

Question
Hi again Kevin!

Another question which might sound silly to you. Actually, I have an image of a bottle with white background. I want to mask the image so that I can only see the bottle's shape but not the white background. I know how to do it with vector graphics cz its easy to get the same shape as we can draw. But how to do it with a raster image? Do we have to draw the shape of the bottle by using pen tool??

Actually I tried one thing on my own too. I tried using "live trace" option to get the shape of the bottle. It kind of worked but not as neat as it should be!

Could you please share some knowledge about it with me?? Is there a way to do so??

Thanks in advance!
Regards
Sophiya

Answer
Hi Sophiya,

You are correct, you would trace the shape of the bottle with the pen tool. Then you can create a clipping mask using the layers palette. There is a button for the clipping mask option.

Be sure that the bottle image and the path are on their own layer, and the path is the top image.

Thanks

Kevin