Sometimes, pursuing your passion can take you places.

RJ Palmer (arvalis on DeviantArt) is renown for his art that depicts what pokemon could look like in real life. Some examples include Charlizard’s life cycle and a horrifying centipede-like Giratina. The artist has come up with so many designs that he’s even published book collections that you can purchase.

As it turns out, the production studio behind the Detective Pikachu film also noticed and recruited Palmer’s unique talents! Since then, Palmer apparently worked on the movie from 2016-2017 – and has even designed some of the film’s pokemon.

Best of all, the film’s production team discovered Palmer after googling “realistic Pokemon” for reference material. It looks like Palmer’s little side-hobby paid off in a really big way, in the end!