I'm not sure if the cmap
argument should be part of the fill_between
plotting command. In your case probably want to use the fill()
command btw.
These fill commands create polygons or polygon collections. A polygon collection can take a cmap
but with fill
there is no way of providing the data on which it should be colored.
What's (for as far as i know) certainly not possible is to fill a single polygon with a gradient as you wish.
The next best thing is to fake it. You can plot a shaded image and clip it based on the created polygon.
# create some sample data
x = np.linspace(0, 1)
y = np.sin(4 * np.pi * x) * np.exp(-5 * x) * 120
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
# plot only the outline of the polygon, and capture the result
poly, = ax.fill(x, y, facecolor='none')
# get the extent of the axes
xmin, xmax = ax.get_xlim()
ymin, ymax = ax.get_ylim()
# create a dummy image
img_data = np.arange(ymin,ymax,(ymax-ymin)/100.)
img_data = img_data.reshape(img_data.size,1)
# plot and clip the image
im = ax.imshow(img_data, aspect='auto', origin='lower', cmap=plt.cm.Reds_r, extent=[xmin,xmax,ymin,ymax], vmin=y.min(), vmax=30.)
im.set_clip_path(poly)
The image is given an extent which basically stretches it over the entire axes. Then the clip_path makes it only showup where the fill
polygon is drawn.