title: Matplotlib: imshow in 3d plot
body: <p>In the plot below, taken from matplotlib's gallery, contourf is used to create a 2d plot beneath the 3d one. My question is, is it possible to use imshow to do the same thing? I would like the colors in the 2d plot to be smoother. </p>
  
  <p>Making the 2d plot seems to be possible because contourf accepts a zdir argument, while I've looked and imshow doesn't. That suggests that it isn't possible, but why not? pcolor would also get the job done, is it possible with that?</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/0XOD2.png" alt=""></p>