I don't like using envelopes either. You don't have very much control, and areas where the envelopes overlap like the insides of the legs can be a pain.
Note that one of the main reasons I prefer animating in Maya is because of it's character rigging tools. You can paint vertex weights with Maya's built-in functionality, a process which is faster and more intuitive than directly selecting vertices and which gives much more control than envelopes.
Note that one of the main reasons I prefer animating in Maya is because of it's character rigging tools. You can paint vertex weights with Maya's built-in functionality, a process which is faster and more intuitive than directly selecting vertices and which gives much more control than envelopes.