It's easy to make animated/interactive 2d plots with PatchCollections, where one can dynamically alter the positions, colors (if using a ScalarMappable colormap), and number of active patches using theset_offsets() andset_array() commands.

This doesn't work quite right for, e.g., Patch3DCollection objects. One can work aroundset_offsets() by setting the_offsets3d attribute directly, and that seems to work fine, but perhaps this could be bundled up into aset_offsets() method?

It's trickier for changing the colormap values withset_array(), because there's no clear hook for how to invoke the zalpha() function appropriately. Worse, at times I'm able to re-create the "patches lose their color and turn gray" bug when directly setting these values -- but I can't exactly figure out where or when. I'm working on a test case for this...

I can try to work up a patch for this, but if@WeatherGod or anyone else could give a hint or two as to the best approach, that would be helpful! I'm thinking thatset_3d_properties() anddo_3d_projection() have basically the logic required, which could be refactored intoset_offsets() andset_array() calls that would do the right things...

PS. Last issue for today, I promise -- sorry for the spam!