plotly - different color scales for multiple surfaces

Question

I am trying to use plotly (4.7.1) with R 3.4.1 to plot two 3D surfaces on the same plot, with two different color scales (variations of blue for one and variations of purple for the other one), and color values derived from z values. When I plot surfaces separately, it works pretty fine, but when I plot both surfaces on the same plot by using add_trace or add_surface, the second surface takes the color of the first one.

Here is an example, using example code from https://plot.ly/r/3d-surface-plots/#new-to-plotly

library(plotly)

z <- c(
  c(8.83,8.89,8.81,8.87,8.9,8.87),
  c(8.89,8.94,8.85,8.94,8.96,8.92),
  c(8.84,8.9,8.82,8.92,8.93,8.91),
  c(8.79,8.85,8.79,8.9,8.94,8.92),
  c(8.79,8.88,8.81,8.9,8.95,8.92),
  c(8.8,8.82,8.78,8.91,8.94,8.92),
  c(8.75,8.78,8.77,8.91,8.95,8.92),
  c(8.8,8.8,8.77,8.91,8.95,8.94),
  c(8.74,8.81,8.76,8.93,8.98,8.99),
  c(8.89,8.99,8.92,9.1,9.13,9.11),
  c(8.97,8.97,8.91,9.09,9.11,9.11),
  c(9.04,9.08,9.05,9.25,9.28,9.27),
  c(9,9.01,9,9.2,9.23,9.2),
  c(8.99,8.99,8.98,9.18,9.2,9.19),
  c(8.93,8.97,8.97,9.18,9.2,9.18)
)
dim(z) <- c(15,6)

z1 <- z - 1
z2 <- z + 1

cols1 <- c(rgb(255/255,112/255,183/255,1),rgb(128/255,0/255,64/255,1))
cols2 <- c(rgb(107/255,184/255,214/255,1),rgb(0/255,90/255,124/255,1))

p1 <- plot_ly(showscale = TRUE) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z1, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z1, colors = cols1) %>%
  layout(scene = list(zaxis = list(range = c(min(z1),max(z2)))))

p2 <- plot_ly(showscale = TRUE) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z2, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z2, colors = cols2) %>%
  layout(scene = list(zaxis = list(range = c(min(z1),max(z2)))))

p3 <- plot_ly(showscale = TRUE) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z1, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z1, colors = cols1) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z2, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z2, colors = cols2) %>%
  layout(scene = list(zaxis = list(range = c(min(z1),max(z2)))))

p1
p2
p3

I tried inherit=F into second add_surface but it didn't change anything. I also looked at plotly - different colours for different surfaces, but the answer does not apply to my case as I don't want uniformely colored plots but colors depending on z values.

I didn't find any answers elsewhere, but I am pretty new to plotly so I hope the answer is not obvious. I somehow managed to get two different scales by using the colorscale argument in the second add_surface: the first surface's colorscale was the default, and the second was different, but not from the colors I defined.

p4 <- plot_ly(showscale = TRUE) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z1, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z1, reversescale=T) %>%
  add_surface(z = ~z2, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), color = ~z2, colorscale = list(c(min(z1),"rgb(107,184,214)"),c(max(z2),"rgb(0,90,124)"))) %>%
  layout(scene = list(zaxis = list(range = c(min(z1),max(z2)))))

p4

I guess it is somehow manageable because of this last example, but I guess I am doing something wrong here. Any help would be very much appreciated!

Looks like a bug to me. Perhaps open a ticket at the Plotly Github page? — Maximilian Peters
Thank you @MaximilianPeters. I also asked the question on Plotly Forum and finally managed to get the result I wanted as in the Answer below. — sebastien1785

sebastien1785 sebastien1785 · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-11T12:16:44

I managed to get the result I wanted by using the colorscale argument properly as in the following code:

p6 <- plot_ly(showscale = TRUE) %>%
   add_surface(z = ~z1, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), colorscale = list(c(0,1),c("rgb(255,112,184)","rgb(128,0,64)"))) %>%
   add_surface(z = ~z2, cmin = min(z1), cmax = max(z2), colorscale = list(c(0,1),c("rgb(107,184,214)","rgb(0,90,124)"))) %>%
   layout(title="SURFACE 1 + SURFACE 2\n(Distinct colorscales as defined)", scene = list(zaxis = list(range = c(min(z1),max(z2)))))

It gives something like this: https://plot.ly/~sebastien1785/20/

However, I was not able to reproduce this result by using the colors argument. Thank you for your help.

plotly - different color scales for multiple surfaces

1 Answers