Nevertheless, so began a period of trial and error as those responsible for bringing Rocky to life — concept artists, the visual effects team, and a group of puppeteers from Creature Shop, among others — worked towards coming up with a final look that most would be happy with.

When Ryan Gosling interacts on screen with his alien buddy, which he does for more than half of “Project Hail Mary,” he wasn’t staring at a green screen as cameras rolled. Instead, he was playing off of an elaborate puppet manned by James Ortiz,