I think you understood right. By skinning I meant weighting a polygon mesh to a skeleton for the purposes of posing/animation. By using cards for feathers, I meant using the same technique as for polygon hair.
Took me a time to figure out terminology. So the skinning means i need to use some blender rig tool if i understand correctly.And cards you mentioned is just flat polygon loop for feathers. Hope i understand it right.Thanks a lot for a hint!