An exploration of video storytelling with AI visual tools.
The holiday card brief: a timeless creative groan. It’s late. It’s vague. It’s underfunded. And it shows up right when everyone’s running on caffeine and candy canes.
At Truth, we’ve made peace with the chaos by flipping it into opportunity. Every year, we treat our holiday moment as a creative playground—an excuse to experiment, break some things, and try new tools we haven’t fully explored.
One year it was a retro video game. Another, collectible postcards. Last year? We built a disgruntled elf named Albus Jinglebottom using AI motion capture.
This year, we decided to go bigger. Push the current AI tools further.
So we invited Krampus to the office.
Let’s talk about the stinky fish
Before we dive into how we made it, we need to acknowledge the big ol’ smelly fish sitting on the conference table.
AI is a hot, messy, and sometimes terrifying conversation in creative industries. Some people treat it like a magic wand. Others treat it like the end of art as we know it. In a lot of places, the conversation feels binary: Human Good. AI Bad. Anything made with AI? “Slop.”
But what we’ve learned at Truth is that creativity rarely works in binaries. We’re an agency built on human creativity—strategy, craft, storytelling—and we see AI as another set of tools. Powerful ones. Expansive ones. And yes, controversial ones.
The work we created with Krampus wasn’t about replacing anyone. We didn’t hire actors, illustrators, or 3D animators because—truthfully—we wouldn’t for a project like this. We’re a small shop. Like many businesses, our self-promo budget is modest and our time is focused on the service we provide to our clients.
But with AI, we were able to create something that we never would have been able to before. A fully realized 3D character, bring him to life in our space, and have him interact with our team—walking, talking, and mildly terrifying.
And it only took a few weeks and a few hundred dollars in tokens.
When constraints meet curiosity
This project was born in an internal AI Bravestorm, a rapid-fire session where we explore ideas at the intersection of imagination and strategy, accelerated with AI tools. Rebranding Krampus was weird, wild, and kind of delightful. But more than that, it proved to us that a tiny team with scrappy tools could conjure something worth sharing. Not despite the limits, but because of them.
So how did we do it?
Let’s pull back the curtain on how our team integrated AI into the creative process—every step of the way.
Step One: Strategy First, Always
We kicked things off with an AI Bravestorm. A flood of holiday ideas poured in—but one idea stuck its claws in us: a rebrand of Krampus, the holiday horror icon.
Once we aligned on the concept, our strategy team built a fast activation brief to guide the work. The idea? Transform Krampus from a dark, problematic figure in the Alpine folklore space into a misunderstood character navigating modern life.
Step Two: Character Development
Next came a challenge to the entire team: Use AI tools to imagine what our version of Krampus might look like.
We opened the door to everyone—strategists, account folks, designers, you name it. Using tools like Midjourney, Firefly, Nano Banana, ChatGPT, and more, the team created a wide range of visual interpretations. Cozy Krampus. Creepy Krampus. LEGO Krampus. We tried it all. We left the tools of experimentation open to the team. This allowed us to learn more about the AI visual tools faster and compare various outputs as a team. Curiosity and play were important aspects of our exploration.
Ultimately, we chose a version of Krampus who looked like he could actually live in our world, someone you might bump into in line at the DMV. That choice influenced everything that came next, especially the story we began to craft.
But we had one last important problem to solve: Could we place Krampus in our office? Could we make it believable?
We decided to find out.
Step Three: Animation and Integration
We started with proof-of-concept tests—dropping Krampus into our real-world office environments to see if it could work visually and tonally.
Once we knew it was possible, the real production began. We developed a story arc for Krampus: from disgruntled delivery monster to … holiday sweater mogul. The scripts were written with help from AI, but human hands shaped the humor, the tone, and the emotional beats (and the Uncrustable).
We introduced him to the world through a vlog-style video—Krampus, telling his story in his own slightly grumpy voice.
Then the challenge was to bring him into the office and meet our team. This involved some additional testing, but once the team cracked it, our content creator was shooting our team in random meetings, with empty chairs and tables to create the spaces Krampus would inhabit.
Then came the office integration. Using the b-roll and some carefully crafted prompting, our content creator began to insert Krampus into our office. The trick was not just to have him be in space but also to get a real performance from the character and create believable scenes to support our story.
Using a mix of Chat GPT, Nano Banana, VEO3, and Kling 2.5 alongside ElevenLabs for voice, we stitched together the full story. In total, we produced four Krampus videos over two weeks.
The result? A character who didn’t just exist in theory—but felt like he belonged in our world.
The Bigger Picture
Krampus was never just about a holiday video. It was a test. A proof point. An invitation to dream and imagine differently.
This project showed us that with the right tools, teams like ours (and maybe yours) can make nearly anything imaginable. AI didn’t replace our creativity; it extended and supercharged it.
Will there be AI slop? Absolutely. But let’s be honest. There has always been creative slop. It was just made with different tools.
We have new ways to explore, prototype, and push beyond what we thought was possible. When wielded with intention and a sense of play, these tools can help us tell richer, braver stories. Our goal is to evaluate these tools with rigor and intention, understanding how we can take advantage of their strengths and avoid their weaknesses and thus amplifying our team’s abilities to unlock new creative frontiers to explore.
We’re not afraid of the future. We’re running toward it—camera in one hand, laptop in the other, and a slightly grumpy monster trailing behind.
