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NormalsFunction

NormalsFunction
is an option for Plot3D and related functions that specifies a function to apply to determine the effective surface normals at every point.
  • The following settings can be given:
Nonedetermine normals from explicit polygon vertices
Automaticdetermine normals from overall surface properties
fdetermine normals by applying a function f
  • With NormalsFunction->f, the arguments supplied to f are as follows:
Plot3Dx, y, z
ParametricPlot3Dx, y, z, u, v
ContourPlot3Dx, y, z, w
RegionPlot3Dx, y, z
  • The function f must return a vector of the form {vx, vy, vz}. Only the direction of this vector matters; the vector is in effect automatically normalized to unit length.
EXAMPLESCLOSE ALL
Basic Examples   (3)
Use automatic methods to compute surface normals:
In[1]:=
Click for copyable input
Out[1]=
 
Make the effective normals to the surface vary locally:
In[1]:=
Click for copyable input
Out[1]=
 
Use flat shading for all polygons:
In[1]:=
Click for copyable input
Out[1]=
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