I wrote custom shaders in both DirectX’s HLSL and OpenGL assembly to obtain a three dimensional effect on flat surfaces. My engine utilized three textures (diffuse, normal- and height-map) in order to light the model. I used N•L and specular lighting along with parallax texturing. The models were rendered based on a point light source either from the camera or a point in space. The point light is represented by a blue ball.
These two photos show the models with and without the effect (click for full view):
A short video showing the project: