One of the best examples of this kind of effect was seen in the opening of the original Twilight Zone televison show. As I recall it's a picture of a window and it's as if you're inside looking out. As the camera trucks forward the window shatters, except the entire image crumbles as though it were mounted on a block of stone. Very effective!

Jay

[Addendum] I got to thinking about it and I found a link where you can see this particular opening. In the left-hand column, scroll down to the "Watch the title sequence" link and click on that.

... I second on Jetdv's suggestion... and guess what, this free plugin's name is "Shatter"... ;-D
And Satish is one hell of a gentleman at helping us people here...