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I am trying to create an object that is completely invisible from the outside, and only visible from the inside. To do this, I have experimented with a cylinder with its top and bottom circle faces deleted. I flipped all the normals inward and enabled backface culling. The faces in front of me are invisible but I still see the opposite inner side of the cylinder (because while the face closest to me has a normal facing away from me, the opposite face has a normal pointing toward me).

Is there a way I can see through the object completely while being able to see the inside faces of the cylinder if I were looking at it from inside the object? I want to put a texture inside the cylinder that can be seen from the inside of the object, but I dont want the object/texture to be visible at all from the outside. Note: I plan on exporting this as obj + image texture (the program I work with only accepts objs and images).

Here is a screenshot (normals are all facing inward): enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ So you want the object to be completely transparent from the outside and completely visible from the inside? If you look into the object from the open top, do you want to be able to see the inside, or do you want it to still be hidden? What are you wanting to use this for? Maybe there's an easier way to do what you're needing. $\endgroup$
    – ElliotThomas
    Commented Jul 20, 2020 at 21:04
  • $\begingroup$ There are various ways to "see through the object completely", but I think you achieved what you wanted by flipping the normals. You could test if you can have "a texture inside the cylinder that can be seen from the inside of the object" by putting the camera inside your object. $\endgroup$
    – Fjoersteller
    Commented Jul 20, 2020 at 21:21
  • $\begingroup$ @ElliotThomas Hi Elliot. Thanks for the reply. I don't want to see the object by looking down from the open top. I want to see the inside of the object when I am inside it (so I guess I should probably put back the circular faces onto the cylinder). But in any case, I would still like to not see the cylinder from the outside. I am using this cylinder to create a panorama.I will be putting in a picture on the curved part of the cylinder to be viewed from the inside. However, the program for which I am making this object for will only accept an obj files for 3D objects. $\endgroup$
    – Avogadro Boltzmann
    Commented Jul 20, 2020 at 23:08
  • $\begingroup$ You can add a material to the object (with normals pointing inward), then go to Material Properties > Setting and check the box next to Backface Culling. Then you can see the inside, like you were inside, without actually being inside. But there is no guaranty this will also be the case if you export the object to another program. There is no guaranty anything you do will work in the other program (since it's unknown). Also I'm very curious: Why do you need the object to be invisible from the outside if you are going to look at it from the inside? I almost feel like you are joking around : ) $\endgroup$
    – Fjoersteller
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 2:29
  • $\begingroup$ @Fjoersteller Hi, thanks for the comment. I will try your suggestion and see if it works out. As for why I need it to be invisible from the outside, I am trying to create a panorama contained within an open world environment. I would like to see the panorama only if I zoom into its location and have the camera inside the object. I'm sure what I'm doing is probably not the right way to approach doing this, but with the program I am working with, my options are limited. Thank you for your curiosity, and if I succeed with this, I would be happy to show you the final product. . $\endgroup$
    – Avogadro Boltzmann
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 20:02

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