The realistic style of Pokémon was based on the artwork by R.J. Palmer. The movie's production designer Nigel Phelps, discovered him while he was looking for realistic Pokémon designs on the internet, and he was so impressed by Palmer's artwork that he gave him a job as the concept artist for the movie.
Surprisingly enough, RJ's main tools for
designing his realistic Pokémon was simply a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. Ultimately, it was the amount of time and effort RJ poured into the project that made his Pokémon come to life. RJ researched every animal he used for inspiration, and in the end, each Pokémon he created took 30 or more hours to complete. He posted them on the popular fan art community site, DeviantArt, and his work won over fans on the internet. It also got the attention of the production designer of "Detective Pikachu." While his Pokémon on DeviantArt is more realistic, the ones he designed for the film had to be a bit more traditional.
RJ Palmer posted his menacing vision for the Pokémon Venusaur in May 2019, one that never made it into the blockbuster movie, but was showcased in one of Detective Pikachu’s trailers. Although he appeared prominently in the promotional material, and although the other original starter Pokémon’s final evolutions were prominently featured in Detective Pikachu, Venusaur only shows up in the background.
Surprisingly enough, RJ's main tools for designing his realistic Pokémon was simply a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. Ultimately, it was the amount of time and effort RJ poured into the project that made his Pokémon come to life. RJ researched every animal he used for inspiration, and in the end, each Pokémon he created took 30 or more hours to complete. He posted them on the popular fan art community site, DeviantArt, and his work won over fans on the internet. It also got the attention of the production designer of "Detective Pikachu." While his Pokémon on DeviantArt is more realistic, the ones he designed for the film had to be a bit more traditional.
RJ Palmer posted his menacing vision for the Pokémon Venusaur in May 2019, one that never made it into the blockbuster movie, but was showcased in one of Detective Pikachu’s trailers. Although he appeared prominently in the promotional material, and although the other original starter Pokémon’s final evolutions were prominently featured in Detective Pikachu, Venusaur only shows up in the background.The filmmakers worked very closely with the games' artists Ken Sugimori, in creating the new Pokémon designs, with providing detailed notes on the film's concept art to the point he actually made renditions of the movie characters and put them all in the credits. There was also a "Pokémon expert" on set that assisted with names, genders, and terminology.
He was hired as a concept artist slash junior illustrator. RJ used real animals as inspiration. For example, Mewtwo was a combination of several creatures including a Kangaroo, a little bit of a rhino, and hairless cat, and some barn owl. For Charizard, he focused on different lizards.
"So I looked at a lot of monitor lizards and brought qualities of crocodilians in there that I liked, as well." -Palmer
"So working on the movie, they had to get more in line with the cartoon aesthetic, I think." - Palmer
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