surfl - Surface plot with colormap-based lighting

Alternatives

To graph selected variables, use the Plot Selector in the Workspace Browser, or use the Figure Palette Plot Catalog. Manipulate graphs in plot edit mode with the Property Editor. For details, see Plotting Tools — Interactive Plotting in the MATLAB Graphics documentation and Creating Graphics from the Workspace Browser in the MATLAB Desktop Tools documentation.

Syntax

Description

The surfl function displays a shaded surface based on a combination of ambient, diffuse, and specular lighting models.

surfl(Z) and surfl(X,Y,Z) create three-dimensional shaded surfaces using the default direction for the light source and the default lighting coefficients for the shading model. X, Y, and Z are vectors or matrices that define the x, y, and z components of a surface.

surfl(...,'light') produces a colored, lighted surface using a MATLAB light object. This produces results different from the default lighting method, surfl(...,'cdata'), which changes the color data for the surface to be the reflectance of the surface.

surfl(...,s) specifies the direction of the light source. s is a two- or three-element vector that specifies the direction from a surface to a light source. s = [sx sy sz] or s = [azimuth elevation]. The default s is 45° counterclockwise from the current view direction.

surfl(X,Y,Z,s,k) specifies the reflectance constant. k is a four-element vector defining the relative contributions of ambient light, diffuse reflection, specular reflection, and the specular shine coefficient. k = [ka kd ks shine] and defaults to [.55,.6,.4,10].

h = surfl(...) returns a handle to a surface graphics object.

Tips

surfl does not accept complex inputs.

For smoother color transitions, use colormaps that have linear intensity variations (e.g., gray, copper, bone, pink).

The ordering of points in the X, Y, and Z matrices defines the inside and outside of parametric surfaces. If you want the opposite side of the surface to reflect the light source, use surfl(X',Y',Z'). Because of the way surface normal vectors are computed, surfl requires matrices that are at least 3-by-3.

Examples

View peaks using colormap-based lighting.

[x,y] = meshgrid(-3:1/8:3);
z = peaks(x,y);
surfl(x,y,z);
shading interp
colormap(gray);
axis([-3,3,-3,3,-8,8])

To plot a lighted surface from a view direction other than the default,

view([10 10])
grid on
hold on
surfl(peaks)
shading interp
colormap copper
hold off

See Also

colormap | light | shading

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