The more realistic detail you add to something already disturbing when rendered in indie-style pixel art, the more outright terrifying it becomes. Good luck and mention me please.
I use Blender. If you are unfamiliar, it's free and generally seems to be a lot of peoples "starting program" I really haven't had inklings to do this professionally, so I've just stuck with blender these past years cause I'm comfortable with it.
So as far as making a plane a light source, I wouldn't really know how to in Maya
I'm not planning on doing a full rig, but I am going to try my hand at doing some minor animations for it. Sort of like league of legends animated splash arts, if you are familiar