A single axes object in MATLAB can only have one colormap at a time. When ‘colormap(jet)’ is called followed by ‘colormap(hot)’, the second call overwrites the first, resulting in both surfaces using the last colormap applied.
One possible solution is to overlay two axes in the same figure, assigning a different colormap to each, and setting their backgrounds to be transparent. This approach allows each surface to retain its respective colormap. The following code snippet demonstrates this method:
% Plotting
figure
set(gcf, 'Color', 'w')
% First axes
ax1 = axes;
mesh1 = mesh(XX_1, YY_1, ZZ_1);
colormap(ax1, jet)
shading interp
set(mesh1, 'FaceAlpha', 0.5)
axis equal
hold(ax1, 'on')
% Second axes, placed in the same position
ax2 = axes;
mesh2 = surf(XX_2, YY_2, ZZ_2);
colormap(ax2, hot)
shading interp
set(mesh2, 'FaceAlpha', 0.8)
% Overlay axes: make both transparent
set(ax1, 'Color', 'none')
set(ax2, 'Color', 'none', ...
'XTick', [], 'YTick', [], 'ZTick', [], ...
'XColor', 'none', 'YColor', 'none', 'ZColor', 'none')
linkaxes([ax1, ax2])
Using this approach with sample data, each surface can be visualized with its own colormap, resulting in a figure as shown below:
For further information, refer to the following documentations:
