Originally Posted by
repechage
The letter height here is fortunate as it does not wrap around the tube a large amount.
different graphics will not be so friendly.
a graphic designer should be able to adjust for this single plane error from a curved surface- my take would be 4 to 5 images around the tube to reference and maybe even splice them together- I did that once in the pre digital era using a self made mount to keep the camera orientation and focal length accurate. A copy stand camera mounted on a board where the frame could swing freely under would be nice.
there is vinyl that is specifically designed as a paint mask material.
For the do do it yourself types, the "weeding" of the unwanted vinyl is a bunch of work- the more intricate the higher the effort. Any interruptions in the vector file letterform closures will bite you. A way to test is to color fill the letters on screen to make cure all is attached to each other.
from the description, I think the most important is the art creation- the step that is glossed over.
I just use tracing paper to make a quick reference sketch of the decal to deal with geometric distortion. Once that's imported and you have the scale correct you can set it and the photograph as background images and do the vector work on top. Once you're done you just drop out the background layers. Inkscape is free and there are lots of tutorials for it out there. I was a complete novice and it only took about a week of evenings to learn the program and draw up a full decal set for my Lygie.