You can do this in Vegas using the free Shatter3D PluginPac from Satish at http://www.debugmode.com/pluginpac/ . You cannot do this in VF because it doesn’t support plugins.

What you can do is use Studio 8 just like a standalone copy of Hollywood FX. Unlike Studio 8, which captures one large file and creates scenes within the program, VF captures each scene as a separate file. This makes it much easier to process just one scene in Studio 8/HFX and then bring it back into VF. It also makes it much easier to delete scenes your not going to use from your hard drive, which you can’t do in Studio 8.

Also unlike Studio 8, which can only render the whole project or nothing, VF will let you specify a small region to render. So you could render just the area you want to apply an effect. Bring it into Studio 8/HFX to apply you FX and then render it back out and bring it back into VF.

BTW, I do this all the time when I want to use an effect or transition from HFX in my VF or Vegas projects. In Vegas you don’t need Hollywood FX as much because it does some incredible compositing in its own right. Vegas3 also has some 3D effects and the soon-to-be-released Vegas4 has more 3D flying window FX that were originally a plugin for Vegas3 just like Hollywood FX.

~jr