This tutorial explains how to extrude those curves into 3d objects manually. There are other ways to achieve the same effect using built in functionality found in the various menus that Maya has.
The Maya shatter effect can be a useful technique to know, but if used incorrectly, it can also cause many headaches due to slow simulation and interpenetration issues. In this tutorial we will go over some different methods of dealing with the shatter effect to create a faster and more reliable workflow, which can be used in a variety of different scenarios.