In the Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, when Anakin participates in the Pod race on Tatooine we can see the big location of the race starting point. I know these buildings are fake. So my question is, where was this scene shot? Did they use studios (animated) or a real location to shoot this scene?
Tunisiassa tehtiin laajoja laukauksia. Suuri osa siitä tehtiin kuitenkin pienoisjoukolla käytännön vaikutuksia käyttäen, täydennettynä CG: llä (sininen näyttö) viimeistä leikkausta varten.
Managed to find this location:Sidi Bouhlel, Tozeur, Tunisia according to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)Filming Locations
And on the Wikipedia page List of Star Wars filming locations
there are various locations in Tunisia which were used for the Tatooine scenes.
those are just the locations i know, but i think the sets were built, with the crowd and all other manner of alien life was done with CGI. the buildings look a little too "real" to be CGI, given that time (1999), hence they were built.