Draping a sequence of textures on an evolving surface in an animation

I regularly load a set of N (where N is large) tif files of the elevations of an evolving surface and then use Warp To Scalar to create shaded-relief images in an animation sequence (see screenshot below of one image in the sequence).

What I want to do is to overlay color maps for another set of N tif files representing another variable of the surface (e.g., the area that drains through each portion) and visualize that variable on the surface in the animation. The second screenshot below shows an example image of one of N files of drainage area. These files appear in the pipeline browser but I can’t get them to be visualized on the surface during an animation.

For a static image I can use Texture Map To Plane and then load in a pickable texture. That approach doesn’t seem feasible for an animation with a different texture for every frame since I can’t seem to choose a different pickable texture for each of the N files in the animation sequence.

Do your images have the same resolution? If so, you should be able to use the Append Attributes filter to combine the elevation and drainage images into a single mesh with two fields. From there you can use one to warp and the other to color.

If the images have a different resolution, you should be able to use Resample with DataSet.

This solution is similar to what is discussed on this topic: https://discourse.paraview.org/t/difference-between-2-datasets/

Thank you, Kenneth. That works perfectly.

Jon, would you be interested in posting a picture of your results with a caption describing what’s in the image? We’re always looking for new material to feature in the ParaView gallery. If this is for a publication you are working on, then I understand you might not want to publish it now, but please keep us in mind for the future.

Sure, Cory. Below is the result with caption. There are many ways to improve and extend this type of visualization now that I am aware of the Append Attributes tool. Thanks again, Kenneth!

Snapshot of an animation of an idealized landscape formed by uniform uplift. Colors represent the area drained through each portion of the landscape. In the central uplifting block, drainage is confined to tributary (upstream-branching) valleys. Alluvial fans form along the edges of block where drainage becomes unconfined as it transitions from the uplifting block to the surrounding plain.

Issue solved.