The nucleation and epitaxial growth of deposits at both low and high temperature substrate conditions and the resulting two and three dimensional growth modes have been investigated using electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. At high temperatures, the growth of small particles such as Au, Pt and Ge grown under low rate conditions similar to MBE are revealed by lattice imaging. Using an intermediate bufler layer Ag film, surface growth of (100) and (310) Au thin film layers are revealed by diffraction contrast to be in a step ledge growth regime. While the above investigations were performed ex situ to the microscope vacuum environment, an in situ evaporator has been also been installed on a high resolution electron microscope. Observations can be made in real time of cluster growth from atomic diameters on up. The resulting atomic motion around cluster edges is similar in appearance to surface melting.