Tracing a logo from a photo

Hi all. I'm not much of a Illustrator user and spend a lot of time with Maya, After Effects and Premiere. I need a way to take a logo (a photo) that has overlapping characters and create a trace of each character so I can use the Create Outlines (if necessary) function in order to bring it in to Zaxwerks Invigorator. I plan to make it a 3D metallic version.

I tried to put an empty layer above it and use the pen tool to trace it out and it looks like that can work but there must be a better way. Every time I get very far, a white mask covers the areas I've already outlined or it covers areas yet to be outlined and I can't even see where I'm going. Any help or tips would be appreciated.

Glenn