Selection Example?

Is it possible to create a selection in FF? For example say I use the Brick component with black and white, could I somehow select the white, then apply that brick shaped selection to a string of components that is giving me a rock look,so that I can then create effects that are constrained by the selection area? I know I could use it as a mask but that would still be applied to the whole 'rock' image rather than the individual bricks.

If possible then can someone provide a simple screenshot or ffxml so I can see (visual guy).

Hope that is clear. At work so sneaking a moment or I'd do a diagram.

Right but this still functions as a mask correct? What I am thinking is for example the 'bump' some people are creating using the Smudge component, when you mask it I assume the displacement would occur on the whole image rather than each brick seperately - is that correct? Hope that makes sense.

Anyway I wanted to play a little with 3.0 and had that thought buzzing in my head.

I'm not always good at explaining what I mean so here is an example using Photoshop.



I created a simple cloud texture. I make some random selections and apply the Displace filter 10 times using the same image as a displacment map. Here is the result



Next I start again with the cloud texture, but using the same random selections I create a mask and use the Displace filter in the same fashion the same 10 times. Here is the result



Not only are the borders different but the Displace filter with the mask is applied to the Cloud texture as a hole, it just hides the parts from you. You can see the difference here using the same selection (and the cloud layer as backdrop for the deformed ones for better comparison)



Might not seem like much but might be fun to test.