Creating shiny windows
Inkscape tutorial


Start with a rectangle…
..add a duplicate below for the window frame.
Use the gradient tool to create a linear fill. In this case, a blue gradient reflects the sky.
Add another rectangle with a gradient alpha fill form 50% to 0%.
Create a few more copies and adjust their width.
Select all the light effect rectangles and use the skew tool (double click on the objects).


Duplicate the window rectangle to create a clip object…
… select all the light effect rectangles, then the copy of the window rectangle and do a Objects /Clip / Set.
A rectangle changed to path with a modified bottom line and a gradient fill adds some shine.
Create minor variations of the light effects and the final shine object. As a result, the rows of windows look less repetitive.



Variations


Finally, play around with colours and added decoration to create the look you are after…


… add grunge and a greenish glow [you can find the crack creation tutorial here] …


… or a sunset feel…


… or something more elaborate.

I hope this explains it a little bit. Enjoy and keep the requests and feedbacks coming…
Get the source art (.svg file) of this tutorial for free!
How you did this crack?
Great tutorials…I would love a tutorial on bullets, missiles, and perhaps a gun ;-)
How to do those green ones? :)
Could you tell us please how to do such a nice grunge?
Yeah, I'd also like to know how you added the grunge to the green windows.
The grunge is actually a free clipart [grunge borders]. To create those it's easiest to take a bitmap program and do some black sploshes with grungy brushes on white canvas and then vectorize the result. The are websites that do that for you – alternatively there are tools that vectorize bitmaps and create decent vector files as long as the image is big enough and the contrast is good.