Rossiya-1

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum



Background

Rossiya-1 (Россия-1) is a state-owned Russian television network owned by Vserossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya televizionnaya i radioveshchatelnaya kompaniya (VGTRK), initially launched on May 13th, 1991 as RTV, a programming block on Soviet Central Television's Vtoraya Programma, then on December 26th of the same year fully replaced the latter channel and renamed as RTR, later Rossiya in 2002 and finally its current name in 2010.


RTV/RTR

1st ID (May 13, 1991-October 24, 1993?)

Visuals: There are three variations of a static image reading the channel's name:

  • On a medium blue background with cloudy-looking splotches of light pink at upper-left and bottom-right corners, there is a royal blue horizontal rectangle with a white outline at the center near the bottom-right portion of the screen, containing the stacked white pixelated text "РОССИЙСКОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ" with a cornflower blue/orchid drop shadow. Behind the blue rectangle is a bigger, lavender one placed even lower on the left. It was used during Sign-On until September 16, 1991, when it was replaced by the RTR ident below.
  • On a bright, shady golden background, there's a transparent chequered pattern of small squares near the middle of the screen, with a bright golden serif text "РОССИЙСКОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ" with a drop shadow being placed at the top front of the said pattern.
  • On a watercolored blue/yellow background with a small red part at the upper-right corner, there's a tilted, wavy Russian flag near the top of the screen. On the left next to a flag is the word "теле", in dark yellow with two thin underlines next to it that go to the upper part of the screen, rotated 90° counterclockwise; and at the bottom front of a flag is the word "канал" in brown, along with the bigger text "Россия" below with two thin underlines: The upper one is extruded throughout the whole text, starting about next to a lower end of the letter "Р", while the second one starts about below the said letter and its right part extends to the right side of the screen.

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: None.

2nd ID (September 16-December 31, 1991)



Visuals: On a vertical slate gray gradient background, the black blocky letters "РТР", with right rounded edges for two "Р" letters, pan down to the center of the screen, along with their indigo copy behind as well as a big transparent white box, both of them which then fade out as the channel's name got to the center. Then, a horizontal stripe of a Russian flag slowly wipes in on the letters near the top beginning on the left, going through the counters of "Р" letters and over the front of the "Т". Once the stripe is done wiping in, the logo zooms in filling the top half of the screen with white and the bottom half with blue, along with a short red part below; then the stacked, tall words "РОССИЙСКОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ", in blue and white respectively, appear sliding in from each other to the oppositely colored halves of the screen.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: The sounds of church bells.

3rd ID (January 1-September 15, 1992)

Visuals: On a beige background, there's a then-new RTR logo contained within a white vertical box outline; it consists of three upper-right arcs colored as a Russian flag, with the letters of the channel's name, set in a futuristic font, below being colored with each arc above them.

Trivia: The logo seen in this ident was used as an on-screen bug until October 1993.

Variants:

  • During programming, the background is a starfield, the logo is zoomed-in with a light blue square cut out by the upper arc and the box outline is absent.
  • After the commercial breaks, a chequered pattern of multiple teal-white diagonal gradient cubes (13 in 16 rows) is shown on a black background, with their middle parts being extruded even further and colored horizontally as a Russian flag, forming the channel's name in a pixelated font.

Technique: A still, printed image. A computerized graphic for the ad break variant.

Audio: None.

4th ID (September 16, 1992-May 12, 1995)

Sign-On

Regular ident

Sign-Off

Visuals: On a white background, atop of the screen is a stylized emblem of three right triangles placed on top of each other tilting upwards, colored as a Russian flag; there's also a much small white right triangle located above an upper-left edge of a bigger white one. Below the emblem is a light blue/silver, stacked sans-serif text "ТЕЛЕКАНАЛ РОССИЯ", with letters of the former word being spaced-out and curvy sharp edges at the upper ends of the latter word's letters. The background eventually fades into a slideshow of what appears to be forest green and salmon blankets moving around in slow motion, taking up the whole screen area, before fading back to white after a while.

Trivia: The logo seen at the start of a Sign-On ident would later be used as an on-screen bug starting in October 1993.

Variants (Sign-On/Sign-Off):

  • Sign-On: The sequence starts with a bright shady beige background where the dark golden then-new RTR logo is shown at the center, consisting of abstract connecting letters of the channel's name formed by two thick stripes, along with two vertical arcs arranged next to a second "Р" letter; with brown ITC Avant Garde Gothic texts "ВСЕРОССИЙСКАЯ" and "ТЕЛЕРАДИОКОМПАНИЯ" above and below respectively. After a while, both texts fade out and the beige background is revealed to be a horizontal rectangular tile that zooms out and slowly rotates against a dark blue-gray vertical background, while the logo slowly flies downwards off-screen. The rectangle then breaks into twenty five pieces via crossfading, which then slowly flip to reveal parts of a world map drawing on their lateral faces as they form a globe with wireframe patterns. Then, small rectangles turn into triangles through the same fading effect as several glossy right triangles appear flying from below to a globe, while the camera starts zooming in. The screen then fades into the top a wireframe bell with the same texture, background and flying triangles, followed by a shot of the wireframe bell itself moving, then the close-up of a Shukhov Tower, with several colorful triangles flying downwards before the camera reaches the bottom front of a tower. Several small rectangles containing images of Russian cathedrals fly various corners covering the entire screen area, followed by colorful rectangles forming a Russian flag at the center. The background then transitions through multiple flying dark blue rectangles into an icy-looking dark blue backdrop as colorful triangles appear atop of the screen, forming an emblem from the regular ident, then the text from the said ident appears flashing in below.
  • Sign-Off: An edited version of the Sign-On ident: It simply starts off with shots of a forming globe, but the gradient background here is much darker; and when the icy-looking backdrop is formed at the end, a light steel blue version of the logo from the beginning of the Sign-On ident, excluding the texts, slides upwards to the center of the screen, then vertical arcs wipe into blue and red respectively.

Technique: A chyroned computerized graphic superimposed over live-action footages. CGI animation for Sign-On and Sign-Off idents.

Audio: A bombastic synth brass fanfare.

Audio Variants:

  • Sign-On: A synth drone that segues into an ending excerpt of the Patrioticheskaya Pesnya anthem of Russia.
  • Sign-Off: A classical, majestic synth orchestral fanfare with some triangle scales, composed by Sergey Miklashevsky.

5th ID (May 13, 1995-June 30, 1996)

Sign-On

Regular

Sign-Off

Visuals: Starting on a dark blue marble background, the screen fades into brown/teal glassy hexagonal edges moving in close-up, with a globe that only contains glassy slate gray continents at the center, which was formed by a transparent cloudy sphere. The transparent clock of the Spasskaya Tower, called Kremlin Chimes, fades in zooming out at the upper-left portion for a brief second before disappearing. As the continents of a globe unfold to the front and then slowly zoom in off-screen, some transparent shots of a Russian city fades in over the background. Then one of hexagonal edges brings up a rather blurry rectangle displaying glassy crimson/medium blue kaleidoscope patterns, the remaining parts of which later fade in, taking up the whole screen area and revealing that it's actually a dodger blue gradient version of the RTR logo (inside which the sky blue map of the Earth can be seen) with texts "ВСЕРОССИЙСКАЯ" and "ТЕЛЕРАДИОКОМПАНИЯ", all from the start of the September 1992 Sign-On ident, reflecting through a kaleidoscope effect. Before the reappearance of a glassy globe in the background for a brief second, as the logo zooms out to the center, the background fills in with multiple, glossy royal blue diagonal stripes that flip to the front.

  • Variants:
  • For the Sign-On ident, three blurry, translucent blue beaming circles appear from the upper-left portion at the beginning before fading out, and the globe faintly emits a turquoise glow before unfolding itself. The diagonal stripes at the end are also noticeably brighter.
  • A short version exists during programming: Several transparent slate blue diagonal stripes slide over each other against several shots of Moscow, with a rotating glassy globe emitting a turquoise glow over the screen. In the end, the stripes eventually settle still, turning non-transparent and covering the whole screen area as the logo with texts, albeit with a cloudy texture, fade in against them.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: There are two variations of a synth rendition of the Patrioticheskaya Pesnya anthem:

  • Sign-On: A bombastic synth organ/bell rendition.
  • Sign-Off: A calm-sounding synth/piano rendition.
  • The short version has an arpeggiating electric piano sounder over a peaceful string piece, accompanied by an ascending xylophone scale and ending with a rising string stinger.

6th ID (July 1-December 31, 1996)

Visuals: The screen transitions from white to a sky blue environment of a glassy vertical tube being surrounded by rings and groups of moving rectangular tiles with some shady orange/yellow lights and a slowly rotating glassy globe in the background, with one of the tiles being darker blue, emitting a light glow and displaying the RTR on-screen bug of the time, while sliding off-screen to the left as the camera zooms in. The screen then fades into a darker blue tubular environment, inside which is the same globe, with the glassy RTR logo slowly sliding over the tube to the right and a steel column in the background. The next shot has several blurry close-ups of a tubular environment with the logo being overlayed over each other, with two translucent white and red rings containing sliding texts of the VGTRK name as well as the bold word "РОССИЯ" between them being shown over the screen, followed by the close-up of the glassy version of the coat of arms of Russia slowly rotating behind the glassy RTR logo. Then the screen flashes into a slightly brightened version of the second shot of a tubular environment, with another copy of the logo moving from afar as well as more moving steel structures with larger tiles in the background. The screen then transitions through a fading wipe into a darker environment, with glassy rings and small tiles slowly moving around a globe and a steel column, and a wavy Russian flag fades in on the right side as the screen flashes into a box containing a zooming-out shot of the said dark blue environment, with the translucent white RTR logo as well as the stacked text "ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ РОССИИ" below being added over it. The background over the box is a blurry shot of a brighter tubular environment.

Technique: CGI animation by the SBM studio.

Audio: An upbeat, bombastic synth orchestral/piano/electric guitar piece which starts off with a deep synth drone, composed by Sergey Miklashevsky.

7th ID (January 1-October 31, 1997)

Visuals: On a gold wooden background, there's a transparent footage of a woman wearing a light blue shirt and a white headscarf, holding a baby in her arms in an apartment building at the bottom-left portion. Atop of the screen are three rows of the serif text "теле видение РОССИЯ", with the first word being left-aligned and transparent, and two latter ones being aligned on the right, the first one of which is stretched-out and the latter having a shady brown gradient with a bottom-right facing drop shadow. Between "теле" and "видение" is a white scrolling spaced-out text "российское телевидение", and at the bottom-right corner of the screen is a transparent white number "1997". After a while, the screen slides to the right, revealing a maze of brown linear/curvy walls with a chequered floor and a lavender ceiling as the camera travels around it at a fast pace before reaching to the golden frame of a picture done in the style of Russian realism on the wall, which then comes to life before the camera would zoom out and pan upwards, revealing the top view of the maze in the darkness (now with a gray floor and the ceiling being absent), with its center being stylized as the RTR logo, albeit formed by three stripes, meaning that the wall with a frame was a part of the said maze. As a spotlight illuminates it from the top-left, the logo flashes causing it to turn yellow.

Pictures: Here's a list of picture variations for this ident:

  • A woman in a dark off-the-shoulder dress is shown sitting at a table, drinking a cup of tea in her hand. On the table in front of her are various fruits such as watermelon, grapes and apples, as well as a samovar and a tea set. In the background, there's a landscape with trees and domes of buildings, as well as a cat sitting on a railing.
  • A scene based on Ilya Repin's painting "Бурлаки на Волге" shows a group of boatmen pulling a barge along a sandy riverbank. People look tired and haggard, their clothes are plain and worn. A river and a boat are seen in the background.
  • Over a yellow/orange-tinted winter cityscape of buildings is a woman sitting in a carriage. She is dressed in dark clothes with fur trim and wears a hat with an ornament and a feather. As she starts to wipe her right shoulder, the carriage starts driving to the left.
  • A group of people are dressed in winter clothes in the forest, where trees and snow are visible around them. Some of them are sitting on boxes or on the ground, others are standing. One of the people in the center played the balalaika, after which they applaud.

Variant (Sign-On/Sign-Off): It starts off with a grainy yellow globe emerging from the darkness through waxing wipe effect, with a golden lens flare being revealed from behind it at the upper-right portion, reaching its center as the screen zooms towards it, transitioning to a gold-tinted cloudy sky where the word "российское", in a white serif font, flashes in near the center of the screen, followed by a larger, outlined word "рос" drawing in atop of the screen as well as the left-aligned, glowing orange "сия" below, while the scrolling white, spaced-out text "российское телевидение" fades in atop of the screen. As a large word "теле", in black, fades in at the upper-left corner, along with smaller word "видение", with a large soft shadow, via a fading wipe below it on the right as the background fades into a gold-tinted footage of a wooden residential building, then the transparent white serif text "в эфире" fades in at the upper-left corner after both "рос" and "сия" faded out. The background then fades into a gold-tinted footage of a river with rocks as the white "российское" text zooms in after a black copy of the text "в эфире" faded in over it near the right, which then also fades out in a blur effect as well as its original one, along with both "теле" and "видение". As the "российское телевидение" text keeps scrolling to the left, three rows of the text "теле видение РОССИЯ" from the regular ident, albeit with "теле" being slightly taller and two latter words being pushed down for a bit, fade in atop of the screen as the background fades into darker gold-tinted shot of Moscow, with a river being overlayed, followed by a close-up of some sort of a Slavic painting of a woman, and finally, a non-transparent shot of a woman holding a baby from the said ident. The camera zooms out to reveal that the said shot is contained within a golden frame on one of the walls of the maze, then turns around the environment and pans backwards, revealing several golden frames on walls containing certain other footages, with half of them being a colorful shady background displaying texts of poems. After a while, the camera flies upwards, turning to the bottom while still rotating, as a spotlight, albeit from the bottom-right portion, turns on to reveal the central part of the maze being stylized as the RTR logo. When the camera settles still, several lights illuminating frames turn off, then the logo flashes turning into a brighter shade of yellow.

Technique: 2D computer animation at the start and CGI by Sergey Shanovich for the rest, both utilizing live-action footages/photographs; directed by Yuri Grymov.

Audio: A short, ascending and peaceful synth bell/harp piece, followed by a dramatic string build up with a timpani roll, then sounds accompanying actions and ending with a bombastic eight-note synth-string fanfare.

Audio Variant: The Sign-On/Sign-Off ident has a descending harp followed by a synthesized whirring sound, and a whistling synth tune seguing into an extended version of the synth bell/harp piece. When the music segues into a calm piano piece, Alexey Batalov starts narrating the third paragraph of Nikolai Rubtsov's poem Душа хранит. After that, the piano music builds up to a synth-string tune that leads to a bombastic eight-note fanfare.

8th ID (November 1, 1997-August 31, 1998)

Visuals: The sequence starts with a wide angle shot of Russia landscapes with river from the Far East, where a shadow of a gigantic RTR logo can be seen peeking out from the left. The second shot features bright pixelized patterns flashing on a transparent glossy RTR logo above landscapes. The next shot has a glassy, slanted version of the logo being formed at the same setting, albeit with the camera panning upwards. The screen then fades into the top view of pixelized patterns flashing on the glassy logo, then transitioning the reflection on it from the clouds to landscapes. The final shot shows the close-up of the RTR logo, now with wireframe patterns, revealing the Moscow Kremlin in its reflection and zooming out to the top as the camera pans away from the landscapes and the logo's glassy texture became solid. Finally, three rows of the white spaced-out, condensed text "ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ РОССИИ" fade in below the logo.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A proud synth orchestral/flute theme composed by Sergey Chekryzhov.

9th ID (September 14, 1998-September 5, 1999)

Visuals: On a dark blue background, multiple rectangles displaying close-ups of a slowly-rotating, yellow-tinted Shukhov Tower from a bottom view appear around the screen fading in one-by-one, along with sets of the scrolling white texts "ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ РОССИИ" (with minority of their words' copies being blue or red; set in a Gill Sans-esque typeface) as well as their words themselves (some of which are translucent, light yellow or blue) and some searchlights. Around the 10 second mark, when three sets of the scrolling text settle at the bottom of the screen before a fully revealed tower would fade in the whole screen area with several white/yellow searchlights appearing around it, the RTR logo of the time (consisting of three squares in diagonal gradient colors of a Russian flag, containing cut-outs of letters of the channel's name set in a modified version of the Dublon font; designed in a similar fashion to the 1992-1998 logo, albeit simplified) zooms in from the bottom via crossfading for three frames and settles itself above scrolling texts.

Variants: In the alternate variant, the background is a shady royal blue aurora, the Shukhov Tower has a metallic texture, searchlights are absent and multiple segmented, shady steel blue rectangles appear behind the towers.

  • Sometimes, instead of a Shukhov Tower, the panning shots of the Moscow Kremlin (most of them which are gray-tinted) are shown inside the rectangles, with Spasskaya Tower appearing near the end before fading out, leaving a horizontal bar of the Moscow Kremlin shot behind.

Technique: 2D computer animation mixed with CGI or sometimes live-action.

Audio: A soothing piano/flute/string tune, composed by Anton Batagov.

10th ID (September 6, 1999-September 14, 2001)

Visuals: An enhanced version of the previous ident. The background is slightly brighter, the rectangles from the said ident's alternate variant, now in royal blue, are also intact behind the towers, which are now white along with all of the searchlights; some tiles of transparent shady squares also appear around the screen, and separately appearing words are set in Helios (with one exception of one transparent copy of "ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ") and in translucent white. At the end, the square tiles at the bottom turn white, blue and red, with filled-in letters appearing inside them zooming in, and then form the logo from before at its usual place, albeit smaller, with the rest of the square tiles remaining appearing around the corners.

Technique: 2D computer animation mixed with CGI.

Audio: The music from the previous ident.

11th ID (September 15, 2001-August 31, 2002)

Visuals: It's essentially the RTR logo of the time slowly zooming on a black background; it consists of three diagonal ribbons forming a downward triangle-shaped Russian flag with the left curved part, with white spaced-out serif of the channel's name next to it at the bottom-left corner.

Technique: A digital graphic with a zooming effect.

Audio: An orchestral string chord sounding similar to the PlayStation 3 startup.

Rossiya

1st ID (September 1-November 17, 2002)

Visuals: Over a royal blue sky with some clouds moving downwards is the Shukhov Tower at a bottom view slowly moving away from the screen to the left, emitting signals as the Rossiya logo of the time forms near the bottom of the screen through beaming circles; it's basically a modified version of the 2001 RTR logo: The flag is slightly darker and tilted as well as its upper part being curved upwards, with left ends of ribbons being cropped slightly; the channel's name now reads "РОССИЯ" and is set in Engravers Gothic Bold, with a thinner, spaced-out word "ТЕЛЕКАНАЛ" being added below it.

Trivia: The cloud footage comes from a video pack "Sky Effects" by "Artbeats".

Technique: CGI animation over the live-action footage.

Audio: A whoosh followed by a warbling synth organ sounder over an ethereal synth pad with brief, echoing sci-fi beeps.

2nd ID (November 18, 2002-February 28, 2003)

Visuals: On a light gray background with a horizontal border containing a grayscale footage of moving clouds at the center, there's either a Shukhov Tower, a satellite or its dish slowly moving on the left with translucent white pillar bars over the screen. A group of five dark blue curvy stripes (with the first one being red) fly across the object thrice, and eventually form a flag of the logo from the previous ident near the right as the channel's name from before, now in dark blue, fades in and slightly jumps letter-by-letter. During the formation of the logo, the right side of the object fades out and a border disappears through a fading wipe that goes to the right.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: An ethereal synth pluck theme.

3rd ID (March 1-August 31, 2003)

Visuals: Starting on a red background of multiple moving, shady vertical stripes, its color wipes into royal blue from the left as the channel's name from before, in white, forms through multiple wiping, translucent vertical bars while slowly sliding to the right. As half of the background's right part turns white, it completely wipes out to the right as the whole said part turns cornflower blue and cleaner, while the flag of a logo appears next to the text, and the transparent Shukhov Tower appears on the left half of the background after the former's non-transparent part passes by through a vertical bar to the left.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A somewhat dramatic new-age synth fanfare accompanied by an ascending whoosh.

4th ID (September 1, 2003-January 17, 2010)

Visuals: On a royal blue horizontal gradient background with a group of blinking, transparent shady horizontal rectangles, several glowing white, blue and red trails fly out from below, causing the flag of the Rossiya logo of the time to flash in at the center as the trails die out.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: An ascending new-age synth fanfare ending with a piano glissando.

5th ID (September 1, 2008-December 31, 2009)

Visuals: Over a blue cloth background with a lens flare at the upper-right portion is a multitude of wide cloths, in colors of a Russian flag, flying from the left. One of the white ones reveals the white "РОССИЯ" text (set in the Journal Sans font) at the center, then three glowing trails quickly fly out from the left to form a smaller, glossy and more simplified version of a Russian flag next to the channel's name on the right one-by-one, bending up even further and with sharp left ends of ribbons, with their transparent trails peeking out to the right.

Variant: There exists a winter-themed version where it has a snowfall and a slight blue tint.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A majestic orchestral string/synth theme accompanied by whooshes, ending with a patriotic five-note bell fanfare with a drumbeat.

Availability: Used in tandem with the previous ident, it was mostly used after program schedules.

Rossiya-1

1st ID (January 18-December 30, 2010)

Visuals: On a black background with a dark blue haze at the middle, a blue light quickly passes by to the left as a red lens flare peeks out from the right, and both of them fade out as a glossy, faintly glowing version of the then-current Rossiya-1 logo (consisting of a blue horizontal bar containing the white Franklin Gothic text "РОССИЯ", with a red square next to the former containing a bold, "stencil" number "1") is revealed from the darkness. Its blurry reflection fades in below after the disappearance of the haze.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: Two short crystalized whoosh sounds seguing into an ambient plucking synth tune accompanied by triangle notes, ending with a string chord.

2nd ID (December 31, 2010-Early 2012)

Visuals: In a light steel blue-white vertical gradient environment with a reflective surface, there are three large wavy cloths colored as a Russian flag. The red one moves downwards to reveal a slightly modified version of the logo from the previous ident; it only contains gradient colors with the absence of a glossy shine, and the "РОССИЯ" text is set in a customized, taller font called Russia-Bold. The cloths continue to move as the camera slowly zooms in.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A light, brief bell toll followed by quiet electronic beeping noises seguing into a dreamy, airy synth chord. This is actually a shortened version of the theme used in the channel's ad break bumpers from March 2004.

3rd ID (June 17, 2013-November 30, 2014)

Visuals: In a various gradient setting, there's a close-up of the glassy "РОССИЯ" text in the same font as before, with glossy shine moving in it. A golden lens flare appears near the center flashing, causing the screen to transition into a fully revealled text, with lens flare going to the left off-screen.

Background Colors:

  • Morning: A sky/royal blue aurora with two shady pink-ish lights.
  • Daytime: A royal blue/orange-yellow aurora with a sun beam at the upper-left corner.
  • Evening: A dark blue gradient setting with bright shades at the upper-left corner.
  • Nighttime: A slightly brighter variation of the Evening background with a multitude of golden bokeh lights.

Trivia: These idents were based on the current continuity bumpers, debuted on October 2, 2012.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio:

  • Morning: A dreamy synth humming.
  • Daytime: A peaceful two-note string fanfare.
  • Evening: An ambient three-note string piece accompanied by sparkling sounds.
  • Nighttime: A soothing, low-pitched synth rendition of the Evening theme.
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