Help with Render > Clouds

I thought you creative folks might know the answer to this one . . .

I'm having fits with this filter.

On my laptop I can select two colors (foreground and background) render the filter and get a decent start on a BG like shown. I used two colors sampled from the eye of a dog that I plan to put on the BG.

The PS settings on my desktop are exactly the same unless there is some obscure setting I'm missing. However, regardless of what colors I pic I get ugly black and white globs when I use the clouds filter.

What am I missing?
I hate having to switch computers just to make a BG!

I've ALWAYS hated that clouds filter and refuse to use it. Are you simply wanting to make a colored BG that has a bit of texture to it?

Hi Julie, Yes, that's pretty much the goal. I'd love to be able to incorporate a few colors too. Like blue with gold flecks or some such.

Okay, here's what I would do...and this may not be the easiest way but I'll bet its the most fun.

Open a new file in PS at the size and resolution you want for your BG and make it transparent.

Find the blue you want and fill in the entire BG with the paint bucket.

Now duplicate that layer (Cntl/Cmnd J) and find the gold color you want and add that to the second layer - same way.

You will now see all gold and no blue. Change the layer blending mode to dissolve and then lower the opacity and fill sliders until you get a mix you like.

That will give you a speckled BG - now you can either liquify, pixelate, tile, etc. (using different filters) to get the texture / flow you want. (I pushed it in liquify and then ran it through pixelate.) Save your final version for next time!

Give it a try and see what you think!

Hey, thanks! That's a great start to what I'm looking for. I'll have to play some more.

OK, Here's what I did.

Two layers, orange-ish and burgundy-ish. Blend mode to dissolve like you suggested and lowere the opacity of the top layer until I had speckles. Then I flattened those layers and made a copy of the new single layer. Applied a gaussian blur (don't remember just how heavy) and the used Edit>Transform>Skew to get less definition to the shapes.

Then a quick mask selection of the edges in a random squiggle, copy selection to new layer, blend mode multiply.

To top it off was Filter>Reder> Lighting effects and played with Omni for the source. Now I'll be up all night making BG's :D

Thanks
Jim

Jules you have created a monster !!!!!! :D:)

Way to go Jim! I never even thought about using the free transform on something like this! You might have re-created a monster in me as well!