Why a person seems happier when it's eyes are above the horizont line?

[Quadart]

I would say this is because when the eyes of a subject are above the horizon line, you the viewer are looking up at the subject. This gives the subject importance, even if it's subconscious. This can translate into perceiving the subject in a positive light, happier, more confident. When the subject's eyes are below the horizon and gazing at the viewer, you the viewer are looking down at the subject. This can translate into the subject appearing less important, subordinate to the viewer, hence maybe even sad.
Note: the horizon line represents you the viewer's eye level.

—Human behavior is chock full of unfortunate truths—

[igorsandman]

The background can also have a huge impact on that respect. If you're looking up to a character, the sky fills more of the frame giving an light/open-spaced feel. If you're looking down on a character, he seems squashed by the heavy/claustrophobic framing. I'm saying that with a filmmaker's mind, but it applies just equaly to anything.
-IS-

[Joanimation]

I don't think eyes up/down are really related to happyness/sadness. I've had a few tries and I've archieved sad faces with eyes rolled up and happy faces with eyes rolled down. Those clues you're going to find them on brow's shape and expression lines around mouth.

I've always conected rolled up eyes with the character thinking and rolled down eyes with shame.

Cheers!

Juan

[Imagus]

Why a person seems happier when it's eyes are above the horizont line?

And why it seems depressed when it's eyes are under the horizont line?From an iconic perspective (no pun intended), the vertical viewing angle of a face causes the eyes to either tilt up toward the center when viewed from below (calm/happy/worried) or tilt down toward the center when viewed from above (angry, frustrated).

This is due to perspective - the same perspective that causes the points of a cube to angle up or down when viewed from below or above, respectively. In order to avoid this - for example, drawing a happy person seen from above - do not rely on iconic representation, but visualize the forms of the face, specifically the musculature, and render it accurately, paying close attention to the key points of the expression. If everything is rendered correctly, the visual cues will be there for the viewer to correctly interpret the character's mood.

From an iconic perspective - for example, in highly stylized cartoons - you can also use elements such as the mouth and eyebrows to counteract the illusions created by perspective.

Not sure if this makes complete sense, but hopefully it helps shed a little bit of light on the subject.

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