Over 600 sculptures were made for Surface Dive. First, key shapes were created out of Sculpey and molds were made for each one. Next, 15 to 20 duplicates of each key shape were made out of MagiSculpt. These were sculpted into an animated sequence, sanded, painted with acrylic and varnished. The whole process took about six months.
Surface Dive is dedicated to Jules Engel, Priestley's mentor at California Institute of the Arts.