this stack overflow comment is helpfull:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32097973/protractor-how-to-handle-site-that-is-heavily-animated

this would be done by adding a CSS class to the page dynamically at start:

.notransition * {
-webkit-transition: none !important;
-moz-transition: none !important;
-o-transition: none !important;
-ms-transition: none !important;
transition: none !important;
}
... and in protractor, I've got something like:

_self.disableCssAnimations = function() {
return browser.executeScript("document.body.className += ' notransition';");
};

This task should be rolled into the "screenshot redesign" task, and they can be accomplished in one branch.