Media company uses 3-D to stage a disappearing act downtown

The new frontier for 3-D projection?

Forget movie theaters or television sets.

A Fairfield, N.J., company is using state-of-the-art 3-D projection technology to make a 12-story building downtown “vanish.”

Pearl Media’s 3D Vanishing Building Experience for LoopNet.com

Pearl Media, which specializes in doing giant outdoor 3-D projections for such clients as Chevy Sonic, Lexus, Hyundai and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, on Thursday night will use its proprietary 3-D mapping technology and high powered projectors to make a building on West 9th Street look like it has disappeared.

The system will map the 3-D projection to the contours of the building, using a combination of animation, light and shadows to create the illusion that the building has been replaced by skyline.

The visual trickery is part of a social media campaign to promote Pearl Media’s client LoopNet.com, a commercial real estate website. Hence the theme of the visual effect: “To demonstrate that if a commercial isn’t listed on LoopNet.com, it’s invisible,” Pearl Media said in a statement.

It’s just the latest outdoor 3-D projection for Pearl Media, which in September 2011 projected a giant image on the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood to promote the DVD and Blu-ray launch of Fox’s “X-Men: First Class.”