Thin films of tin (Sn), aluminum (Al), gold (Au), ruthenium (Ru), tungsten (W), ruthenium dioxide (RuO2), tin dioxide (SnO2) and tungsten trioxide (WO3) were grown by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) to determine whether a nanostructuring threshold condition can be quantified as a function of both substrate temperature and melting point of the material. Films were grown using both DC and pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with continuous substrate rotation over the temperature range from 18 – 800oC. Film morphologies, structures, and compositions were characterized by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Films were also grown in non-GLAD configurations for comparison. For the elemental metals, it is found that nanorod-structuring occurs for materials with melting points higher than that of Al (660°C) when films are grown at room temperature with a relatively small rotation rate of ~5 rpm. For the oxide materials, our results indicate that a critical substrate temperature (TS) to melting point (TM) ratio exists, above which GLAD nanorod-structuring becomes ineffective because the adatom mobilities become large enough for non-kinetically limited film nucleation and growth processes to occur, similar to those operative in a non-GLAD growth configuration.