The California Indian exhibit depicts an area southwest of Bakersfield, California, where native Americans are known to sit on a specific location on a rocky outcropping to see the sun rise over distant hills. The location at which the sun rises each morning helped them to decide when to perform certain agricultural tasks.

We used Google Earth to find the right spot, and then modeled the area based on the images that we found. The basic model was laid down as layers of foam, and then cut by hand using a variety of tools. Once the basic shape was correct, the front part of the model was converted to faux rockwork; the rest of the flatter and more distant part of the model was covered with a hard coating, and then textured and painted to get a feeling of depth. A screen was placed behind the model to provide a place to show the rising sun at different times of the year, and to give a story line.

The American Indian in the foreground was created using Poser, and then converted to 3D Studio to prepare him for printing. A rough print was done to get the pose correct, and to make sure that he fit to the rockwork. Once the shape and seating position were correct, we printed him in full resolution, and our model maker added the details.