A realistic feather generation may be represented via a user interface in a modeling system. To perform the feather generation, a curve defining a spine of a feather is received from input to the user interface of the modeling system. The feather is created in the user interface based at least on the curve, where the feather includes barbs extended away from the spine of the feather in one or more directions. The feather is deformed based on one or more deformation parameters. A feather contour of the barbs along at least one of the one or more directions is generated based on a contour parameter defining the feather contour. A barb density for a number of the barbs along the spine of the feather is established based on a barb density parameter. Thereafter, a data structure representing the feather is generated.