Staging

Origins

Staging is presenting the idea or action in such a way that makes it completely clear to the audience. It's the most general of the animation principles since it incorporates many different concepts, often from theater, in order to create something that the audience can easily understand. 

Importance

There are multiple aspects of staging that need to be considered for animation. The most important one is the 'story point' which means that every frame of the film must advance the story. Simply put, if you don't need it, don't show it. If the character is supposed to be happily running through a field of flowers don't include anything that detracts from the feeling like a graveyard in the background or a bat flying overhead. 

Another point to remember is to only show one action at a time. You don't want your action de-emphasized by a bad camera angle or other things going on in the scene. Each frame of animation should show the action in the strongest and most understandable way. You are essentially guiding the audience to look at one thing, then the next, then the next instead of showing them everything at once. 

As an animator it's important that you avoid hiding parts of the character from the audience such as having the hand move in front of the characters face or one leg hidden behind the other. Older animations had an even harder time with this since everything was in black and white. This required them to pay extra attention to the characters silhouette to avoid the hand being lost in the chest or the shoulders disappearing into the head. This limitation turned out to be a valuable learning experience though as they learned that it is always better to show an action in silhouette.

Source

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.