I've found a nice workflow of using the 'render elements only' feature to generate files which I can use to start working on compositing it all while I wait for the beauty render to come in. I use the 'source color' element as a placeholder for the rendered RGBA which works nicely.
To clarify, right now I'm working on an animation of a building that has a lot of video projectors in it, the projected footage is added in post using re-mapping and the UV coords form a UV pass. All I need to get started inpost is the UV pass and a the 'source color' for reference of what's going on. this on itself works great but...
Obviously the 'source color' is not in the main RGBA channel of an EXR and I have to shuffle channels in post which is a bit of a drag since I'm dealing with a dozen shot or so.. So an option to force an render element into the main RGBA of an EXR would be nice. Or maybe a more high level approach like 'generate comp-able files' button which basically does a 'elements only' but with with a quick 'source color' pass in main RGBA would work as well.
(and make this network/batch renderable as well please :) )
