LOS ANGELES — In a dark room inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Koji Kuramura is giving space exploration the show-biz treatment.

The 41-year-old animator once guided the starship Enterprise as he helped craft "Star Trek" episodes. Now he's building a virtual launch pad for the Phoenix rocket that will blast off in August to survey Mars' polar ice caps. His work will be part of a five-minute computer-animated film that will simulate a front-row view.

"Our job is to bring some Hollywood pizazz, the wow factor, to everything we do," Kuramura said.

Throughout Southern California, digital artists weaned on Walt Disney, "Star Wars" and video games are bringing their wow factor to companies outside of entertainment that have discovered what a powerful business tool computer animation can be. It used to be that if you were an animator, you pretty much worked in movies, TV, commercials and video games. Now 55 industries nationwide use digital artists, a study by Los Angeles-based Entertainment Economy Institute found.

"Whether you're showing how a new heart valve works in 3-D, or how the rover landed on Mars, you're using the same skills and in many cases the same software tools that are used to make 'Spider-Man 3' or 'Happy Feet,' " said Kathleen Milnes, who co-authored the study funded by the Los Angeles Community College District.

As the premier training ground for animators, Southern California is creating a rich talent pool spreading through such diverse fields as aerospace, toy manufacturing, forensics and biomedicine.

Toshiba Medical Systems Corp. in Orange County uses animated videos to train people to use MRI scanners. Toyota Motor Corp.'s design center in Newport Beach employs digital artists to create an online car catalog. Mattel Inc. in El Segundo plies animation in designing toys.

"Animation has become an absolutely critical tool for architects," said Phillip Rudy, director of design for WPIIDC.

Animation once involved scores of workers who painstakingly drew and colored cells. Today, low-cost computers and enhanced 3-D software put an animation studio on a desktop, fueling a boom in the genre that has extended well beyond major Hollywood studios.

The Los Angeles region employed an estimated 3,870 digital artists in 2005, a nearly 85 percent increase since 2000, with wages averaging more than $80,000 and elite artists making many times that.

Typifying the new breed of independent animator is Eric Keller, 37. He works from a cramped, one-bedroom Hollywood apartment where he runs a one-man company called Bloopatone that specializes in scientific applications. Keller is helping researchers at Harvard Medical School see how the HIV virus hijacks human cells. On his computer, Keller is rigging a 3-D image that looks like a Christmas decoration gone haywire, a swirl of interlocking red, green and yellow ribbons, to simulate a strand of the virus.

"We see it as much more than pretty pictures," said Gael McGill, a Harvard-trained biochemist who hired Keller for the project and runs a multimedia science business. "We see animation as a powerful communication tool that allows us to better understand complex processes."

To pay the bills, Keller continues working freelance at a Los Angeles studio that designs logos for movie titles and commercials. Last year, he designed the opening credits for ESPN's "NFL Prime Time" show. But it's the medical work that is most satisfying for him.

JPL's Kuramura, a self-taught computer wizard, keeps an assortment of "Star Trek" models at his Burbank house that would be the envy of a middle-school kid. On his desk is a model of a Cylon from the TV series "Battlestar Galactica."

Kuramura began his career at a video game company, later working on visual effects for "Star Trek: Enterprise" and other television shows and movies.

When that work ended, he launched his own side business with a partner. Forrec Group creates short animated movies that re-enact traffic accidents and crime scenes for jurors, charging $250 to $1,000 per second of film. One project involved animating an attempted murder. Another showed a driver plunging into a ravine.